Essence of Pain
by Nevelyna
Summary: He never thought that he could fall in love. He never thought that could really be truly happy. He never thought that someone could love him because he was a marked man. He was wrong.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One Meeting the Goddess

When Harry James Potter woke up that beautiful August morning, he had absolutely no idea that it would be the one day that would change his life forever.

The Boy Who Lived opened his eyes and sat up sharply as he heard the final syllable of 'Avada Kadavra', the hideous laughter of his arch-enemy Lord Voldemort, and a green light flashed in his subconcious as a flash of pain ran across the lightning bolt scar of his forehead. He lay back down slowly, the dream fading quickly from his memory. He closed his eyes briefly and caught his breath.

When the pain in his forehead had gone and the sick feeling in his stomach had eased, he sat up again and slowly looked around the bedroom that he shared with his best friend, Ronald Weasley. They were not at the Burrow, as Harry had hoped he would be going to this summer after his annual torturous stay at his only living relative's house, but at Grimmauld Place - Sirius' old house. Harry, of course, felt guilty and sad about being there. After all, he had as good as killed him, hadn't he?

His security this summer had tripled and after only one month of being at his Aunt and Uncle's, which he had spent locked in his bedroom, the entourage had come for him in the dead of night and they had flown to Grimmauld Place. Of course, the Weasley's - excluding Percy who was still not talking to his family - and Hermione Granger had already been there and had been for about a week. But this time, Harry hadn't minded it so much - the inability for the three of them to communicate all summer, the lack of sufficient information from either them or the Order of the Phoenix about everything that was happening, and his overall lack of knowledge of anything pertaining to the Order. He knew why now.

The only thing that did bother him, and it bothered him a great deal, was all of the suspicious Muggle deaths and murders. There were so many of them now as Voldemort was not even trying to hide that he was back anymore.

After all, he thought bitterly, what was the point? The whole Ministry of Magic had seen him and the Minister of Magic - the incompetent Cornelius Fudge - had informed all of the neccesary people. Everyone knew that he was back - except maybe for the wizarding world in the states, in which some people had never heard of him - even during the first war. And the deaths of Muggles and wizards wasn't happening merely in the British Isles, but all of Western Europe. And when he had come here, he had immediately been informed by Ron and Hermione that there were some happening 'Across the Pond' - as Ron put it - in the States. He looked at Ron's bed to find that the lanky redhead was still asleep. He climbed out of bed and dressed quickly. Then he left the room quietly and started down the stairs.

He was very careful not to make a single sound in the entrance hallway for fear of waking up Mrs. Black and havng to hear her scream about how glad she was that Sirius was dead. He went down to the kitchen to find Mrs. Weasley and Remus Lupin there. Lupin was sitting at the table with a cup of hot tea clasped in his hands, looking tired with his pale complexion and shabby robes. Mrs. Weasley stood at the stove, cooking something that smelled absolutely delicious - par usual. They both looked up as he shut the door with a soft 'click' behind him.

"Harry, dear!" Mrs. Weasley said. "Sit down at the table, dear, and I'll get you a spot of breakfast."

"Thank you Mrs. Weasley." Harry said, sitting across from Lupin. "Good morning, Lupin."

"Good morning, Harry. My, you're up early for a summer day."

Harry simply shrugged. By now, he couldn't remember what had woken him up. Mrs.Weasly set a plate down in front of him and gave him a motherly pat on his head. He smiled at her in thanks and was just about to start on his flapjacks when the front door above them crashed open and Mrs. Black began screaming.

"Molly! Remus!" Harry heard Professor Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry - call to them.

"Oh, dear." Mrs. Weasley said and both she and Lupin hurried for the door. Harry, feeling an overwhelming sense of curiosity, followed them and they did not tell him that he couldn't.

When they reached the entrance hallway, he saw Dumbledore standing in the middle of it with a stratcher floating next to his head. Even at Harry's height of 5'11", he couldn't see what was in the stretcher, save for a small corner of black pinstripe fabric and an extremely long tendril of rusty auburn hair that hung from it's side. Lupin and Mrs. Weasley rushed to close Mrs. Black's curtains as Dumbledore nodded to both them and Harry before he started up the stairs. Harry had an urge to follow him in order to find out who - or what - was in that stretcher, but he decided against it. If he was patient enough, he would find out sooner or later.

He went back down into the kitchen and was shortly joined by Ron, Hermione, and Ron's little sister, Ginny.

Harry didn't say a word to them about what had taken place that morning and the day went on much as it usually did. Mrs. Weasley's delicious flapjack breakfast, followed by a few hours of Exploding Snap, chess, or Gobstones and, at Hermione's persistance, homework, This was always followed by lunch in the kitchen, courtesy again of Mrs. Weasley, which that day had been and assortment of meat pies and pumpkin juice. Then had finished the extremely dangerous cleaning of the library. Hermione had oohed and ahed over the extrememly large assortment of books until one that she had found particularly intriguing tried to bite her fingers off. After that had been a lovely turkey dinner, which was followed by more free time which consisted of Hermione doing homework, and he and Ron playing chess, while Ginny had kept saying that she would play the winner, which was, of course, Ron, who, of course, beat her as well.And after Harry and Ginny had gotten extremely tired of being beaten, and Ron had gotten a bit bored, they extracted Hermione from her homework and went off to bed exhausted.

The only thing different was the not-so-simple fact that Harry couldn't seem to get that long tendril of lusterous hair out of his mind. He didn't know why, there was nothing remotely weird about it. Nothing at all. It was just that it was so shiny and looked so soft, plus the fact that it was such a beautiful and unusual color and it was SO long!

He lay awake that night, unable to sleep for thinking about how much he wanted to run his fingers through that lock of hair. Wondering if it was as soft as he thought it was, what it smelled like. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even hear or see the door open or the dark shadow creeping into his room until someone sat on the edge of his bed by his torso and jiggled his shoulder gently.

"Harry," He heard Hermione's voice whisper as he was jolted from his thoughts. "Are you awake, Harry?" He sat up slowly.

"Yes." He said.

"Do you know who Dumbledore brought in this morning?" She asked, her voice hardly above an excited whisper.

"No." He said. "How did you know about it?"

"I was just slipping out of mine and Ginny's room this morning when Professor Dumbledore came down the hallway with that stretcher. I couldn't see into it because he had it up so high. Could you?"

"No, it was too high up for me too. Too bad Ron wasn't awake, though. He could've seen whoever it was real clearly."

"Whas'sat?" A still half-asleep Ron said as he heard his name.

"Ron, wake up and come over here."

"Hermione?" Ron asked incredulously, jolting awake in an instant. "Is that you?"

"Of course it's me, Ron, who'd you think it would be?" Hermione asked sharply.

"Well, not you." Ron said akwardly.

"Oh? So you don't want me here, is that it?"

"NO! Uh - no. It's just that- It's not a bad thing that you're here, Hermione. Not at all, it's just that-" He stopped.

"Just what, Ronald?" Hermione said.

"Just that - How come you are in here anyway? Shouldn't you be asleep by now?"

"Not everyone can simply hit the pillow and be out like a light like you can Ron. And anyway, I'm here because I want you and Harry to come with me to see if we can find whoever - or whatever - Dumbledore brought here this morning."

"What in the bloody hell are you talking about, Hermione?" Ron asked. Hermione winced.

"Language, Ron. And I'm talking about the person or thing that Professor Dunbledore brought to the house this morning, the reason that Mrs. Black was screaming and why you're mum woke you up and told you to hurry downstairs to the kitchen. I want to find it and see what's wrong."

"Hermione! It's none of our business. If Dumbledore wanted us to know what it was, he would have told us - or shown us. But he didn't so why bother?"

"Ronald, if you don't want to come then fine, but Harry and I are going, right, Harry?" Harry was inclined to disagree with her but just as he opened his mouth to form the words, he saw the lock of hair flash across his vision again. He knew that he had to see it again. He didn't know why, he just knew that he had to.

"Right." He said. He pushed back his bedclothes as Hermione moved off the bed, and got up. "You coming, Ron?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah." He said grumpily, pushing off his tangle bedclothes too. "I'm coming. Just let me put on a shirt will ya?" He got up and Harry heard a quickly stiffled gasp from Hermione. Ron heard it too and they both turned to look at Hermione who was by the door, staring at Ron's bare torso. She quickly averted her gaze, and Harry could see her cheeks flaming even in the dark. He looked back at Ron, whose ears and neck were turning a lovely shade of magenta as well. Ron reached hurriedly for a shirt that was under his bed, threw it on quickly and stood. The two were decidedly not looking at each other, each turning redder by the second. Harry could have laughed, but didn't.

"Well, let's go then." He said instead and Hermione was quick to agree.

"Oh, yes, let's." She opened the door and stepped out into the hall nervously. The three moved down the hall, Ron and Hermione still not daring to look at each other, until they came to one of the unused bedrooms that had it's door closed. Ron tried the knob.

"Locked." He said, "I guess that this is the right room. Are we absolutely sure that we want to do this?" He asked, making one final plea for them to go back down the hall to their bedrooms and forget about whoever or whatever was behind that door.

"Yes." Harry said as Hermione pulled her wand from her dressing gown.

"All right then." Ron said, relenting.

Hermione mutterd "Alohomora" and the door clicked open. The three slipped inside and Ron closed the door behind them.

The room wasn't dark, as Harry had expected, but a few candles on the vanity were lit. A girl sat on the stool in front of the mirror, her back to them. From his persepective by the door, he couldn't see her face. Her hair was just as he had imagined it, flowing all the way to her waist in lusterous waves and curls. In the candlelight, it glowed like fire. She obviously had been brushing her hair when they had arrived because the brush was paused at the back of her head.

"Hi there." Hermione said tenitavely.

The brush resumed it's long path through the girl's hair and then was set down on the vanity next to a pile of bobby pins and a hair tie. Long tapered fingers with long, elegant, unpolished fingernails picked up the tie and drew all of that beautiful mane of fire into a ponytail, which was promptly twisted up into a bun and secured with the entire pile of bobby pins. Harry could now see the girl's bare back and shoulders. Her skin was a slightly tanned, cream color and the light made it glow as well. She wore a short turquiose nightgown that reached her mid-thigh.

Harry immediately hated the bun and silently cursed it for capturing all the beauty of that gorgeous hair that he had dreamed about the entire day. She stood and turned around to face them and Harry was immediately sorry for cursing anything about her. He nearly got down on his knees to beg her forgiveness for his unspoken words. Her face was the loveliest he had ever seen - lovelier than all of the veelas in the world put together - lovelier than Fleur Delacour.

He saw her chin first. It was a little round yet angular with an extremely slight dimple that could have easily been missed if it weren't for the shadows behing thrown by the flickering candles and the fact that he was studying it so closely.

Next were her lips. The bottom was full and a little pouty, the upper a little too short to be considered full - the perfect place between full and thin.

Next was her nose - not too long but not short by any means, barely turned up - perfect.

Then her cheekbones. Set high on her face they were elegant, exotic, and classic all at the same moment.

From there he passed over her eyes which had lingered to her right and were slightly downcast, to her eyebrows which here straight with a very slight arch that would be perfect for raising in curiosity or sarcasm.

Her forehead was high to complement her cheekbones.

Then he looked back down to her eyes and got the shock of his life. They were deep pools of dark forest green. The deepest jade rock had been liquefyed in order to form those eyes. He felt himself drowning and could not have wrenched his eyes away from them even if he had wanted to - which he didn't.

She was looking at them curiously, watching them with only slight interest.

"Hello." Hermione tried again. "I'm Hermione Granger. This is Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter. What's your name?" The girl slightly arched one of her delicate eyebrows, lifting the corner of her right eye slightly. Harry thought he would melt into a puddle. How could Hermione be talking to this Goddess? Harry had lost his power of speech as soon as he had seen the first glimpse of her fiery mane of hair again and it obviously did not see itself fit to come back at any time soon.

This girl did not deserve mere words. Simple 'Hi's and Hello's were not sufficient grammar for beauty such as this. Songs, poems, sonnets, limmericks, any worshipful dialogue would be better, yet still not enough. He was not fit to stand on the ground she walked on. Not fit to be in this very room. It had to be some type of blasphemy, of that he was certain.

But oh how wonderous it felt to be in her prescence, how more wonderous still if he could hear her voice, her laugh. See her smile. It felt so wrong yet so exciting.

"What are you three doing in my room?" The Goddess asked. Harry felt his knees go weak. Her voice was soft, yet strong. Low and calm and dangerous. Dramatic. And she was American. He had always thought that American accents were the sexiest accents on earth, even more beautiful than French or Italian.

"We just wanted to see who you were and if you were all right." Hermione said, seemingly still the only one with the ability to talk. He didn't know what Ron was doing, he couldn't take his eyes off of the Queen in front of him.

"Well," The Goddess said. "Now that you've seen that I am all right, you'll kindly leave so that I can get some sleep. I'm very tired, you see." Every consonant - every vowel - was formed perfectly, carefully.

She was tired, they should leave. He turned to do just that when Hermione spoke a little indignantly.

"Well, that was quite a rude thing to say." Harry rounded on her. The Goddess had requested that they leave. They needed to leave. She wanted to sleep. They should let her sleep. Not only was Hermione not doing what the Goddess had asked, but she was now insulting her. Harry wouldn't stand for that. No one could insult the Goddess, it was surely forbidden. Hermione would surely be cursed for it.

The Goddess's eyes narrowed dangerously. "And it was also very rude to come barging into someone's room in the middle of the night - somewhat good intentions or no." Harry smiled with pride at the Goddess's words.

Very true. It was rude of them to do that - especially without even knocking and asking her permision to enter this sanctuary. They should leave, now.

"You weren't asleep. It can't have bothered you very much." Hermione said duelingly.

"I could have been. You didn't know that I wasn't when you unlocked the door, now did you? You couldn't have."

"But we had good intentions. We wanted to see if you were all right." Hermione said desperately, knowing that she was fighting a loosing battle.

The Goddess was right. Hermione was wrong. It was that simple. The Goddess would always be right. Would always have the answers. Simple facts. Wasn't Hermione supposed to be the one who got simple facts when no one else could?

"Oh stop trying to fool yourself." The Goddess said, her dramatic voice dangerously low now. "You were simply curious and wanted to know who I am and why I'm here. Am I right?" Hermione was at a loss for words. Finally, Harry thought.

He finally found his voice and spoke slowly, quietly, not sure if he really should be saying these stupid mere words to her at all. But at the moment, they were all he had. He would have to make up for them later. He stared at the floor as he spoke.

"I'm so very sorry." He said quietly. So quiet that if the room were not silent, he wouldn't have been able to hear himself over the pounding of his heart. "We had no right to barge in on you like this. It was terribly wrong of us. We'll be going now." He took Hermione's and Ron's arms and turned them physically towards the door. It was extremely hard for him to turn from her but he managed - barely.

Oh, how that wash of gold and fire that was her image had burned itself into his irises rendering him slightly blind for a moment. He let go of Ron's arm and took hold of the doorknob firmly and was about to turn it when he heard her beautiful voice behind him.

"Lava." She said.

Harry let go of the doorknob and turned back to her, as did his companions.

"My name is Lava."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Knowing his Queen

Harry stared at her.

Lava.

Her name was Lava.

He now had a name for his wonderful Goddess. And her name was as exotic and beautiful as she was.

"Lava?" Hermione asked, pulling he arm from Harry's grasp. "What kind of name is that?"

Harry shot her a glare. He was getting tired of her insults of his Goddess.

"The shortened kind because I hate my full name." Lava said, sitting back down at the vanity, facing them.

"And what's that?" The Goddess looked at her as if judging if she were worth telling. She sighed at swept her marvelous eyes over Harry and Ron. Her eyes stopped on Harry and seemed to soften a bit. He swallowed and forced his knees to steady as he met those gorgeous eyes. "Lavatarniella Callivania Kathmerneniven." She said, speaking to him.

"That's beautiful." He whispered, hardly aware that he had said it. The right side of the Goddess's mouth slightly quirked.

"Thank you." She said. Harry started slightly, had he really just said that out loud to her? He smiled a little guiltily. At least she had thanked him for it.

"You're welcome." He said quietly.

"We'll go now and let you sleep. Next time, we'll knock." Ron said, opening the door and walking out. Hermione followed him, but Harry was still rooted to the spot by her lovely eyes.

"Goodnight." She said quietly. Harry nodded.

"Goodnight. May I come and see you tomorrow?" He asked her. She nodded.

"Just be sure that you knock first." He nodded again. Then he bowed to her as it seemed to be the only logical and right thing to do, and left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

He sighed and let his head fall against the door softly. She had given him permission to see her tomorrow. Had given him permission to enter her private domain. He quickly looked down at himself to find that he wore only his black cotton boxers and a white t-shirt. There could be no doubt that his black hair was messy as it always was. He would have to make himself look presentable tomorrow before he went to see her. He looked at Ron and Hermione, who were staring at him.

"You're gone, mate." Ron said.

"What?" Harry asked, is thoughts still lingering on those deep green eyes.

"You're gone, Harry. You've fallen for her. It's plain for any imbecile to see. You're staring at her, obviously worshiping her, and even bloody well bowing to her. Wow, mate, I'd never thought that I would see you like this. It's kind of scary, yet kind of funny at the same time."

"So what?" Harry asked, standing up straight and running his hand quickly through his hair. "That's not a bad thing, is it?"

"No." Ron said. "Not at all." He smiled slightly, as if he were trying to hold back a laugh. Hermione shot him a glare.

"Of course it isn't, Harry. I think it's really sweet."

"She gave me permission to come and see her tomorrow."

"You asked her permission to come to her door and knock?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Of course I did. If you don't get her permission to do something it's just not right."

"You couldn't have just knocked on her door when you came?"

"No. I might have surprised her and then she might not have let me see her. Now I won't."

"You're insane, Harry." Ron said, shaking his head and chuckling lightly. "Come on, now that we know that she's not a huge three headed dog can we go to bed now?"

"Yes let's." Hermione said.

Harry lay awake all that night, thinking about Lava.

- - - - -

The next morning, Harry rose around eight o'clock and tried to figure out what he should wear. It was very unusual for him to worry over such things, but he was going to see his Goddess today and wanted to look his best. He finally settled on a pair of black pants, a deep blue cotton t-shirt that he tucked in, and a long sleeve white dress shirt which he left unbuttoned. He tried in vain to flatten his hair and finally gave up, disappointedly running his hands through his hair and messing it up even further than it already had been when he woke up.

He sighed and went downstairs to have a quick breakfast. He did some of his Transfiguration homework for a while until about eleven and started upstairs. When he reached Her door he waited outside of it for a few moments, psyching himself up for it.

Should he really invade on her privacy like this? Would she rather be alone today? Or would she actually like company? Would he look too dressed up? Or would he not look dressed up enough? Why wouldn't his hair flatten out like normal people's?

He thought about her hair. Would she be wearing it down today like he hoped she would? Or would she wear it in that bun? Or would she have it up in a completely different way? What was she doing at this very moment?

He pressed his ear to the door and heard nothing. Could she still be asleep? Maybe he should just wait until later. It was the summer, she may have been sleeping late.

He took a step back from the door and bit his lip, running a hand through his hair out of habit and then immediately trying to flatten it again.

"Just knock on the door, Harry." He heard Hermione say. He jumped a bit and looked at her. She stood at the door to her and Ginny's room with her Potions book clutched to her chest.

"But what if she's asleep? What if she wants her privacy today?" He asked.

"I doubt very highly that she could still be asleep and she invited you to see her today, remember? Just knock. Because if you don't, I will." Harry smiled nervously at her and knocked on the door softly.

"Come in." He heard Her voice say. He smiled and looked towards Hermione, finding that she was already gone. He opened the door and slipped inside the room, shutting it quietly behind him.

She was sitting in a cushioned chair by the window, her legs tucked under her. She was reading a paperback book that must have come from a muggle bookshop. She wore an old, soft, red t-shirt and old, soft jeans. Her hair was in a long braid that fell over her shoulder. She put the book down after the door was closed and looked at him.

"Good morning." She said. "Harry, right?" He nodded dumbly. She had remembered his name. He felt blessed.

"Good morning, Lava." He said quietly. "How are you?"

"Better than I was yesterday." She said with finality. He simply nodded again and stared at her. He would never get enough of the sight of her. He could look at her forever. "So," She said. "Was there something that you wanted to do today?"

Harry started. He hadn't thought of what he would actually do when he visited her today, just that he was going to.

"I just - uh - wanted to keep you company today." He said. She simply looked at him. He thought fast about what they could do. "We could play a game, or talk, or-" He stopped. What else could they do? He decided to just come right out and say it. "I really hadn't thought about what we'd do when I came to see you today, just that I was coming to see you today." He said lamely. She nodded.

"Okay." She said. "We can talk or play a game or whatever, Harry." He couldn't stop himself.

"Say that again." He said. She looked at him curiously.

"What?"

"My name."

"Ok." She said slowly. "Harry." She raised her eyebrows and bit her lower lip. He shook himself.

"I'm sorry." He said. "That was stupid. And you probably think that I'm insane. I'm not, I promise." He bit his lip and ran a hand through his hair, berating himself. How could he do such a stupid thing. And to Her of all people. "I'm going to go get a game. I'll be back in a few minutes." He bowed to her, as it seemed the natural thing to do, and left the room.

As soon as the door was shut behind him, he smack himself in the forehead. "Stupid!" He hissed. "You idiot! To Her of all people!"

He hurriedly tried to compose himself as he rushed down the stairs as quietly as possible and into the parlor. He grabbed up Ron's Wizard's Chess set and checkered board and dashed back upstairs again. He knocked on her door again and this time she opened it herself. She ushered him in and he gestured at the chess set and board in his hands.

"Where would you like me to put them?" He asked her quietly.

"The floor is fine." She replied.

Harry stilled slightly. She wanted to sit on the floor? But it was hardwood, uncarpeted, not comfortable. And she deserved to be comfortable. She deserved all the comforts that the world had to offer. She then did just that. She sat down on the floor with her legs crossed, looking up at him expectantly. He started and set the game down. Then, getting an idea, he went to her bed and picked up her pillow carefully, nearly worshiping the object that she layed her gorgeous hair on.

"Here," He said, offering it to her. "Sit on this. It's more comfortable." She looked at him curiously.

"I'm fine, Harry, really. I'm very comfortable already."

"But-" He started, but she cut him off.

"But nothing." She said, starting to set up the chess game. "Now why don't you just throw that thing back on the bed and sit down so that I can beat you." He chuckled slightly, but did not just throw her pillow back onto her bed. He placed it had the head on the bed very carefully and then sat down across the chessboard from her. She had let him be white. "Go ahead." She said.

"Pawn to F3"

"Pawn to D5"

"Pawn to B4"

"Queen to C6"

"Pawn to D4"

"Bishop to G4"

What was going on? she wasn't even trying to take his pawns and he was pretty much letting her do it, it was as if she wasn't interested in his pawns. whereas if he had been playing with Ron, the redhead would have had half of his pawns by now. But then he had an idea.

"Hey," He said and she looked up from the board to him. "We wanted to get to know each other better, right?" She nodded. "Well how about with every move, we have to tell each other something about ourselves." She seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding.

"Okay," She said. "But now we need to start the game over if we want to learn very much."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked confusedly. "We just started."

"Well, yes, we did." She said. "But I'm just about to beat you."

"What? How?" She simply raised an eyebrow at him quite evilly.

"Just make your next move and I'll show you." She said mysteriously.

"Pawn to B5" He said.

"Queen to C2" And with that, she leaned back from the board slightly and watched Harry's pawn get pulverized without much interest. As her black queen settled down she just looked at Harry for a moment before saying softly. "Check mate." Harry looked from her beautiful face to the board and, to his surprise, he couldn't move his king anywhere without putting him in check. He looked back at her to see a very smug expression on her face and he applauded her.

"Wow." He said. "In only four moves, too!" She simply nodded and started setting the pieces back up in their original positions. "You'll have to play Ron some time." Her brow creased slightly.

"Why?"

"Because no one at Hogwarts can beat him!"

"Well," She said. "I think that he's just met his match."

"Yeah, no kidding." Harry said, looking up from the board and into her lovely eyes. She twirled the end of her braid around her fingertips and watched him expectantly. He was confused by this for a few moments before remembering that it was his move first. "Oh." He said, making his move carelessly. "Right well... my birthday is July thirty-first." He offered. She made her move seemingly just as carelessly as himself as it was far away from his own.

"Mine's March eighteenth."

"My favorite color is red - I think." She looked at him oddly.

"You think?"

"Well, I've never really thought about it before."

"Oh, well mine's blue, but I also like green."

"My middle name is James."

"That's no fair!" She exclaimed.

"What? Why not?"

"Because you already know my middle name!"

"Well then choose something else." He chuckled at her. She scowled playfully at him. He liked this, he was finally getting comfortable in her fiery presence.

"I always wake up at 4:30 in the morning no matter what day it is."

"Why?" He asked.

"So that I can deal with and tame this mass." She said, gesturing to her long braid of captured waves.

"You're lucky that you can tame yours." He said. "Mine just won't, no matter what I do to it."

"But I sort of like yours messy." She said. Harry felt his heart soar, and was finally glad for the first time that morning that his hair was as messy as it was and he hadn't been able to do anything to tame it that morning.

For the next hour and a half, he learned a lot about her. She loved cats and she used to have an owl. She used to be extremely short before last year when she had a growth spurt (she was now around 5'8 1/2"). She'd never been really close to her friends at her private wizarding school in America, and it wasn't that she hadn't been liked by people or didn't like the people there, she just wasn't interested in what was 'normal' for the other girls and guys there.

Pretty much the only thing he didn't know about her was why she was here in England. He really was very curious about it, but he decided not to ask her for the information. When and if she wanted to tell him, she would.

The game still wasn't over, but the two decided to stop when the door was knocked on once and then Ron and Hermione burst inside the room.

"Come in." Lava said to the ceiling as Harry shot a small glare at the two. Ron shrugged at him sheepishly as Hermione sat down near Lava.

"Good morning, Lava." She said.

"Good morning." Lava replied, glancing at Hermione and then back to the board.

"Ron," Harry said. "You should play a round with Lava." He gestured to the board. "She's really good." He glanced at Lava for permission and she gave him a slight wink.

"Well," Ron said. "If you insist." Harry moved around next to Lava as Ron took his vacated spot on the floor.

"Do the move you did on me." Harry whispered in Lava's ear. She nodded slightly as Ron protested.

"Hey! No helping the Yank!" Lava shot him a playful glare.

"I'll have you know that I am not a Yankee, thank you very much. I am from Georgia. And that's as far South as you can go in America."

"But Florida is South of Georgia." Hermione pointed out.

"Ah, yes." Lava agreed. "But, in the Civil War when it was the Union Yankee's against the Confederate Southerner's, Florida was still partial to Spain so it wasn't counted as a State. So I am a Southerner, not a Yankee, and I would prefer it if you didn't call me one, as I am quite happy with my own heritage, thank you very much." Harry laughed at Ron's befuddlement and Hermione's look of dawning respect. Ron shook his head sharply.

"Can we just play?" He cried.

"Certainly." Lava said. "But you have to move first."

"Oh, right." Ron said, his ears turning slightly red.

About seven minutes later, a voice rang out "Checkmate!" and for the first time since Harry and Hermione had known him, it was not Ron's.

The bewildered redhead stared at the board in shock.

"How did you - How did I - What was - This can't - This isn't -" He didn't seem to be able to form a coherent question but Lava answered him anyway.

"I did it in four moves. You didn't notice because you were still in offensive strategy. It was a sneaky move. This can happen. This is possible." Ron looked up at her still in shock. "I can teach you how if you like. You can use it with either the black pieces or the white pieces and all you have to do is memorize the placing. It's really quite easy." Ron finally smiled at her and offered her his hand.

"Good show." He said as Lava shook his outstretched hand. "Very nice, for a Yank." He added as and afterthought.

"Ron..." Both Harry and Hermione said warningly as Lava raised one of her perfect eyebrows at him.

"What?" He asked in a mock-innocent tone. Harry shook his head.

"Don't mind him." He told Lava. "He's just never been beaten before." Lava shot him a look.

"Harry, it's fine. He's only joking with me about it." She said.

"So," Hermione cut in, changing the subject quickly. "What house do you think you'll be in, Lava?"

"House?" Lava looked at her confusedly. Hermione shot Harry an exasperated look.

"Harry," She scolded. "Don't tell me that you've been in this room for over an hour and haven't told her about Hogwarts yet!"

"We've been talking about other things," Harry said. "And Hogwarts hadn't come up yet."

"Right," Ron whispered in Harry's ear. "You were 'talking' for an hour and a half. Well, Harry old boy, do tell us what you were 'talking' to the lovely lady about?" Harry simply responded by giving Ron's thigh a sharp kick. Luckily, Lava hadn't noticed this little exchange as Hermione was explaining the houses at Hogwarts.

"I hope that I'm in Gryffindor with you guys, then." She decided. "It sounds quite exciting."

"You have no idea." Ron stated simply.

"I've never been to a boarding school before." Lava said nonchalantly.

"Never?" Hermione asked. Lava shook her head.

"I've only ever been to an 'Invitation Only' wizarding private school in Atlanta. And we went back home from classes every day at around three o'clock in the afternoon. Of course, we were there at five thirty every morning."

"Lucky!" Ron exclaimed enviously. Harry laughed at him.

Hermione then began to explain Hogwarts in detail to Lava and Harry put his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand as he simply watched Lava, still feeling privileged to be in her presence.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Getting Her Attention

The days passed and Harry could always be found in Lava's room. He got her permission to visit her every night before he left and he could only hope that she would not tire of him.

She never had her hair loose and flowing and he missed it terribly.

He rarely could be seen anywhere else in the Black Manor, save for in the mornings when he would rise extremely early and hurriedly eat a light breakfast before disappearing for hours on end.

It had been quite funny when Mrs. Weasely had brought up their lunch one of those days and told them to tuck in as she always did and Lava had thought that she meant for them to go to bed.

The two would talk and play games, or Lava would read and Harry would do his homework. Sometimes - rarely - Ron and Hermione would join them, but they were mainly left to their own devices.

His birthday came and went and he spent only two hours out of Lava's room, which she never left, though no one knew why, to receive his presents and his delicious birthday dinner that Mrs. Weasley had cooked for him.

When Harry wasn't with her, Lava was all he could think about.

One rainy Tuesday, he knew it was rainy from the sound of the raindrops on the window, not that he had been outside, and he was, again, in Lava's room. Mrs. Weasley was out at Diagon Alley getting all of their school supplies. She had taken Lava's measurements herself earlier that morning so that she could give them to Madame Malkins. Harry would have bet his entire fortune that the woman would not be happy with the circumstances but she would probably do her best nonetheless. And any alterations that needed to be done Mrs. Weasley could probably do. The day that they would be taking the Hogwarts Express to the school was swiftly coming upon them as September 1st was barely a week away. And Harry was having trouble trying to convince himself that if Lava got sorted into a house other than Gryffindor, he would not be seeing her as often as he would like. He had gotten used to spending every hour of the day in her company and knew that he would certainly feel a great loss if that was taken away from him.

He was slowly starting to agree with Ron that he had fallen head over heels for the beautiful American.

Not the he would ever admit that to Ron of course.

At the moment, Lava was in her chair, reading as usual, and Harry was at the desk supposedly doing his homework, but was turned away from it and staring wistfully at her graceful figure. Today she was wearing a beautiful silk brown skirt that went down to her mid-shins that seemed to have an attached underskirt of pink silk and a brown silk and white lace camisole that exactly matched the skirt with little abstract designs in pink thread here and there.

Her hair was still not down, he hadn't seen it down since the night he met her and he was certainly feeling the withdrawal of its beauty. Its thickness was captured in another tight bun and secured with bobby pins.

His eyes traced down from her hair as he was dissatisfied with it right now, even if he was addicted to its luscious color, to scan her face.

Her brow was slightly creased in concentration, her beautiful eyes moving back and forth quickly as she read, nearing the end of the novel. She was biting her bottom lip gently and he had a strange urge to stride across the room and kiss them in order to see if they were as delectable and delicious as they looked. But he fought it affectively and watched her elegant fingers turn a feathery page carefully.

Nothing could disturb her when she read so it was always safe for him to watch her like this without the risk of getting her annoyed. But there was a slight - fluctuation - in this if he really delved into it.

If he stared at her, she never seemed to notice, but when he stared at something other than her - the wall for instance - she would become annoyed and ask him why he was just sitting there staring.

It distracted her.

And sometimes he did it purposefully, just so that he could hear her voice after a long silence.

But today, like most days, he was content to just watch her reading. Finding pleasure in its simplicity.

After about another half an hour, she closed the book, and he whipped his eyes to the wall, successfully shielding that he had ever been watching her. He listened to her set the book down and stretch for a moment before looking at her again.

"Why'd you stop reading?" He asked her, truly wanting to know. She looked over at him, a ghost of a smile playing on her lips.

She never smiled.

Not to anyone.

She never laughed either, even when he, Ron and Hermione would be on the floor rolling with laughter.

She would only quirk the right corner of her mouth up or wear the ghost she wore now.

"Because I finished it." She answered him simply.

"What do you want to do now?" He asked, having already forgotten his homework hours ago. She shrugged.

"You choose." She said.

He froze. He, again, couldn't think of anything.

"We could play chess again."

"Aren't you getting tired of losing to me?"

"No." He said. 'I could lose to you forever.' He thought. He had gotten much better at not adding such things on to what he said in her prescience. But before he could think of any more suggestions there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." Lava said and the door swung open to find Mrs. Weasely with many bags of shopping in her arms. Lava jumped up and hurried over to her and took some of the bags from her.

"Oh, thank you, dear." Mrs. Weasely said. "Those are all of your things. I got them with some of the money that you parents left you. It was transferred to Gringots, and some that I had left over is in a pouch in one of them for you to spend while you're at school. Professor Dumbledore signed your Hogsmeade permission form for you. And Harry, dear, these are your things. Make sure that you both pack everything that you think you might need. It will be very hard for us to owl you anything you left from here." Harry nodded and thanked Mrs. Weasely mechanically, taking his things from her and setting them on the floor beside the desk chair.

But he was really focusing on both what Mrs. Weasely had sad about Lava's parents and Lava's reaction to the woman's words. Mrs. Weasely left the room, closing the door behind her and he watched Lava set the bags on her bed and begin unpacking them one by one.

Mrs. Weasley had sad 'money that your parents left you'. That sounded an awful lot like what his own parents had done when they had been murdered.

Her parents were dead?

'Well, duh, you git. Of course they're dead. She wouldn't be here if they weren't. Unless they were Muggles and she's already said that she's a pure blood.'

But when Mrs. Weasely had said that, Lava had seemed to - deflate - a little. Her back was to him, so he could not see what she was thinking. Not that he would have been able to discern it even if she had been looking at him, he could never really read her. Something that he hoped to one day remedy.

"I'm sorry about your parents." He said suddenly, again unable to stop himself. He slapped himself mentally. 'Idiot! Touchy subject! Not your business!'

She turned around sharply to face him.

"What?" She said. "Oh. Well, thank you." She turned back to her bags. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you that they were - dead - before, but it's not something that you really want to talk about is it?"

"Do you want to talk about it now?" He asked her. He could hear her sigh, a heavenly, and yet melancholy sound.

"No." She said. "Not really." He nodded, unaware that she couldn't see him.

But again, curse his evil tongue, he could not stop himself from what he desperately wanted to say.

Maybe he wasn't getting as good as he thought that he was.

Or maybe he had jinxed himself.

"Were they murdered?"

She spun around again, her new school robes in her hands. She stared at him.

"How did you know?" She asked quietly.

"I just guessed." He said. "Mine were, too."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Me too. I shouldn't have asked that."

"It's all right. Just - no more talking about it for now okay?" He nodded and she went back to her bags again as he sat down and watched her.

One day, he vowed to himself.

One day he would see her smile.

One day he would hear her laugh.

One day he would kiss her and call her his own.

One day she would tell him her story and he would tell her his.

- - - - -

It had been a week since that day when Harry had learned that Lava's parents had been murdered.

He, Lava, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and a slew of Order members were on Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station, the gleaming train in front of them.

Lava hadn't been too happy when she was told that she was going to walk through a wall.

At first she thought they were all playing a joke on her, but then Hermione had walked through the barrier between platforms nine and ten and she had been amazed.

Then she had been sarcastic about it, saying that they couldn't possibly think that _she_ would walk through a wall.

Then Ron had followed Hermione and she had stared after him for a few moments.

Then Mrs. Weasley had gently taken her arm and tried to lead her to the barrier herself as she had not moved.

Then Lava had become adamant that she was _not _going through that wall and that was final.

It turned out that she was extremely claustrophobic and was afraid that she would get stuck inside of it.

Then Harry had come in.

He had put a comforting hand on her shoulder, caring so much that he didn't even realize that he was touching her (which he had realized a few moments later was blasphemy and that he had not gotten permission from her to lay his unworthy hand on her.) and spoke in low, even tones to her that he would walk through with her and that they would not get stuck, this he promised her.

And she had believed him!

She had listened to him!

She had nodded and let him lead her (and his trolley on which he had placed her trunk along with his and Hedwig in her cage.) through the barrier to the other side.

Where she was so grateful to him that she had hugged him.

He had been in heaven for one second and then it was gone.

It had been so short that he hadn't even had a chance to lift his own arms from his sides and return it. Yet he could still feel her soft, slim arms laced around his neck and longed to feel them there again.

The five of them waved goodbye to the Order members after receiving hugs and a few kisses from them and boarded the train. They found an empty compartment in the far back and stowed their trunks and Ginny went to sit with her own friends. Then Ron and Hermione said their own goodbyes and left for the prefect compartment near the front of the train, leaving Harry and Lava alone.

Harry sat next to her and watched her out of the corner of his eye as she pulled out a new book and flipped to its first page. He was still thinking about that heaven he had been in when he had her full and undivided attention and the feel of her so close to him.

He wanted to know what it would feel like to have her in his arms. He wondered how he would feel if he could get used to that sensation.

Like the luckiest and happiest man in the world, he thought.

But he wanted that attention back. And how was he going to get it when she had her nose in her book?

Then it came to him.

Take the book.

It was as simple as that.

Start reading it for himself maybe.

But did he dare?

It was _hers_.

It was blasphemy, wasn't it?

It denied everything that he believed _should_ come to his Goddess, should happen to his queen.

But then again.

He wanted his Goddess's attention.

He wanted to hear her voice.

He wanted to feel her skin.

He wanted to see her hair down and flowing like he had been dreaming about ever since that night that he met her.

He wanted to feel her in his arms forever.

He wanted to feel her lips against his for eternity.

He wanted to know how it would be for her to love him as he loved her.

He wanted to know what she thought of how he worshipped every tiny thing about her.

Without even realizing it, throughout this internal dialogue he had reached out and taken the book from her gentle fingers quickly, as if he were snatching the snitch right out of Malfoy's grasp, and he was now reading the back cover.

Wait, what was its title again?

_Daughter of the Forest_.

It sounded interesting enough.

The book looked old and worn, as if it had been read very often.

He wondered if it was her favorite.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She was looking at him in disbelief.

Aha. He had her full attention now, didn't he? He felt a bit of guilty pleasure from it, thoroughly enjoying it.

He kept a passive face, as if nothing had happened, as he turned the book back over to its front cover, opened it, and began to read the first chapter. He really was reading it, although he was not entirely focused on it. He heard her give of slight sound of annoyed disbelief and before he knew it, her fingers had closed around the top of the book and were trying to pull it from his grasp. He tightened his fingers around the sides of it and continued reading. She dropped her hand and stared at him.

"Give it back, Harry." She said calmly.

He gave no sign that he had heard her.

"Come on, Harry. I know that you can hear me. Give it back."

Still no sign.

"Please Harry? Come on, give it back to me? Please?"

He slowly shook his head. He was getting pretty good at refusing her, even though part of his mind was telling him to give her back the book and grovel at her feet asking for forgiveness for inconveniencing her.

He flipped the page, and she moved closer to him. He tilted the book away from her and turned to look at her. Her beautiful eyes met his with an innocent look.

"I wasn't going to take it from you, Harry." She said, sounding sincere. "You're on the same page as I was when you took it from me. If you really want to read the book and not just bug me then maybe we can read it together?" He watched her suspiciously.

"Really?" He asked. "You're not just saying that so that I'll put me guard down and you'll take it back from me?"

"The thought never even crossed my mind."

"I'm sure." He said.

She smiled.

And he could have melted into a puddle of sopping goo where he sat.

She had dimples.

A single in her left cheek and a double in her right.

And her teeth were so white.

"Well, maybe it did cross my mind, but I wouldn't have done it. I owe you for helping me get through the barrier."

He nodded mechanically. She was still smiling.

"Okay." He said, still staring at her, captivated by her smile.

It wavered a bit.

"What's wrong, Harry?" She asked.

"You have the most beautiful smile I have ever seen." He said. Not feeling embarrassed to say it in the least. It was the truth. Her smile grew and she ducked her head a bit.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

She looked towards the book and before he could stop himself, he lean forward a few inches and kissed her cheek. Her head whipped back around before he had time to move his head back and her lips brushed his.

Electric sparks flew through his body and he was sent into heaven again.

But her lips did not stay on his.

She was saying something.

What was it?

He couldn't hear it over the pleasurable roaring in his ears.

Oh.

There it was.

"What was that for?"

He shrugged and tilted the book back to her, trying to play it off yet still feeling as if he was in heaven.

"I just felt like it." He said.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her smile again and felt pleased.

She laid her head on his shoulder and he immediately felt at peace as they both read her book.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four First Kiss

Harry was on cloud nine. His arm was around Lava's shoulders, holding her close to him in the Gryffindor common room long after everyone else had gone to bed.

That's right. She had been sorted into Gryffindor after an extremely long 'conversation' with the sorting hat before any of the first years went. Harry had been a nervous wreck ever since they had gotten off of the train and Hagrid had called for her to join him and the first years on the boat ride to the castle. His teeth had been clenched. His hands had been shaking in anticipation. His forehead had been perspiring slightly. Nothing anyone had said could calm him down, nor could any of it reassure him. And he had been chewing on his lower lip ever since she had walked into the Great Hall. (It had been bleeding a bit after the hat had made its decision.) But now, here he was. With her.

They were reading the book again. Their book. It was fun to share something with her, even if it were as trivial as reading a Muggle novel. And who knew? Perhaps one day it would turn out to be more. But right now, he was content to feel her next to him, so close to him. He was content to enfold her in the protection of his arm. But he also wanted to talk to her.

He was wondering about some things. Not about her parents or anything like that. (At least, not right now.) But what classes she was signed up to take. Or even if she knew what she was taking. He wasn't particularly sure how the schools worked over in America, just that it was much different from Hogwarts. When they had finished the second chapter (they had finished the first on the train.), he closed the book and stuck it in the pocket of his jeans. He looked down at Lava, whose head was still on his shoulder. She glared up at him from her position with narrowed eyes. He smiled.

"You know," She said. "That's going to get very annoying very fast." He chuckled.

"Well, I'm tired of reading for now." He said. "I want to talk to you." She raised a delicate eyebrow and he desperately fought a shiver of delight.

"What do you want to talk about?" She asked, sounding a little suspicious of him. He supposed that she though that he wanted to talk about her family.

"Not about your parents or anything. I just want to know what classes you think that you'll be taking." She looked into the dying fire in front of them, thinking.

"Well, I don't rightly know as of the moment." She said; her American accent was so clearly defined that had he not been sitting, his knees would have given out on him. "But I told Professor Dumbledore that I wanted to be an auror like my - my parents were," She faltered when she mentioned her parents but took a deep breath and continued calmly. "And he knows that I was the top in all my classes back at Astritone. That was my old school. And I was taking all AP classes."

"What are AP classes?" Harry asked.

"Advanced placement." She replied. "Defense against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy. And he told me what else Hogwarts had to offer that Astritone didn't and asked me what sounded interesting. And I told him History of Magic, Centaur Divination, Herbology, and Astronomy. I've never taken Astronomy before and I never really felt like taking Herbology at Astritone because the teacher was a little too fond of her Mandrakes. And I've always thought that Centaurs were so fascinating and beautiful, and the way that they think is so - creative, you know? I can't wait. What are you taking?"

"Well, we won't find out for sure until tomorrow, but I passed all of my OWLS, and I want to be an Auror too. So I'm signed up to take The NEWTS courses in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions, but I also decided to go into Advanced Care of Magical creatures because Hagrid teaches that and I want to make sure that he does okay. Plus, I think that he might feel a little put out if I don't. He's my friend. Plus, it's an extremely easy class, even when it gets a little dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Lava asked, her eyes getting an excited sparkle to them. So she liked danger, did she? "Like, how dangerous?"

"Well, in Third year we had Hippogriffs and last year we had Thestrals." She looked a little put out at his words.

"Is that it?"

"That's not dangerous enough for you?" Harry asked, shocked. She shook her head.

"We had so much worse."

"Like what?"

"Sixth grade - your... First Year?... we had a Demiguise and a Hippogriff. Seventh Grade was a Firecrab and a Hippocampus. Eighth was a Jarvey, an Erumpent, and a Kelpie. Ninth was an Erkling, an Occamy, a Phoenix, a Sphinx, and a Griffin. And last year we had a Winged Horse, a Yeti, a Unicorn, a Thestral, a Tebo, a Troll, a Re'em and a Romanian Longhorn. And this year we were supposed to have a Manticore, a Kappa, and three more dragons. I think that they were supposed to be a Swedish Short Snout, a Norwegian Ridgeback, and a Common Welsh Green. And Senior year we were supposed to get into the really fun stuff. We were going to have an Antipodean Opaleye, a Hungarian Horntail, an actual Peruvian Vipertooth, a Ukranian Ironbelly, a Runespoor, and we were even going to get to see our Transfiguration teacher turn into a Werewolf. We interview him about it all the time, but he takes the wolf bane potion that his wife, the Potions teacher, makes for him every month, and so he's harmless. Once a year he won't take it and let the seniors study him. He thinks that it's quite fun really, just as long as he doesn't hurt anyone, and he hasn't ever since he started working there. Plus, he gets paid more because he's willing to do it." Harry was staring at her, his eyes huge, his jaw agape.

"Those are really dangerous creatures!" He said after a few minutes. "You study dragons!" She grinned widely and nodded vigorously.

"It was fun, too. All of them were. The only one that I didn't like very much was the sphinx because she kept asking us riddle after riddle after riddle. It got quite annoying after a while." Harry couldn't speak. What if she had gotten hurt? Didn't teachers over there have any notion how dangerous those creatures were? He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but nothing would come out. Lava sat up and looked at him curiously for a moment, biting the insides of her closed lips and smiling before she couldn't take it anymore and started laughing hysterically.

Harry was now speechless for an entirely different reason, having now forgotten all about her former Care of Magical Creatures class. Her laugh was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. He fought an astoundingly strong urge to kiss her and settled for laughing right along with her instead. They slowly calmed themselves down after a while and Lava yawned widely. He noticed it and was immediately sobered.

"Time to go to bed." He said. "We can talk more tomorrow. It'll be your first time taking classes at Hogwarts." He smiled at her. She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then asked,

"Would you show me to my classes tomorrow, Harry? I'll never find them otherwise. Why, I don't even remember how we got up here from the Great Hall." Harry chuckled slightly and nodded.

"It would be my pleasure Miss Kathmerneniven." He said.

"Why thank you Mr. Potter. That's very kind of you." He rose from the couch and offered his hand to pull her up with. She took it and he led her to the steps up to her dorm.

"You're in the one that has the sign that says 6th years on the door." He told her. She bit her lip for a moment, as if contemplating something, and then she rose up on her toes and kissed his cheek swiftly. She smiled up at him and he felt his knees start to buckle slightly.

"Thank you so much for everything you've done for me, Harry." She said. "You're a real prince." She squeezed his hand lightly, which was still hanging onto hers and he finally came halfway to his senses and kissed the back of her hand as she was pulling it out of his. He bowed over it saying,

"Sweet dreams, my Princess. I shall see you in the morning." She chuckled a bit, nodded, and began to climb the steps. He watched her go and as soon as she was out of sight, his face broke into the biggest grin he had ever felt. He touched his cheek lightly where she had kissed him and floated up his own stairs and into his familiar dorm. He exchanged his robes for his blue and white striped pajama pants and a black t shirt without realizing he had done it. He slipped underneath his sheets, not even bothering to close his hangings as he slipped into sweet, dream-filled sleep. His last thought was, 'Now, how can I convince her to wear her hair down all the time?'


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: The First Day

The next day, Harry made it down to the common room around 5 a.m. in order to escort Lava down to breakfast. He sat watching the beginning of dawn through one of the windows until he heard light footsteps coming down the staircase. He turned to look and found that it was Lava. She looked absolutely ravishing in her black school robes, her bag slung over her shoulder like his. Her hair was, as he had expected it to be, pulled back severely in a bun. He really was getting sick of her hair not ever being down and intended to ask her about it. As soon as he worked up the nerve to, that is. He grinned at her and she returned it.

"Ready to go down to breakfast?" He asked, offering her his arm like a gentleman. She laughed, nodded, and took his arm. He led her out of the portrait hole and they started down to the Great Hall.

"So, when do we get our schedules?" She asked.

"Professor McGonagall will pass them out to us today before classes."

"Oh." She said. "That's convenient" He nodded. "I hope that we have the same classes." She continued.

"If you planned on taking Auror courses, we will be." She nodded a bit.

"But I also planned on taking Divination, Herbology, History of Magic, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Astronomy, so we might not have the same periods." He chuckled.

"We'll be in the same periods; I'll just have more breaks throughout the day than you will."

"Oh." She said again.

"You're really piling it on, aren't you?" She shrugged.

"I just want to make sure that if I get hurt on the job and can't be an Auror any more due to injuries that I have something to fall back on." Harry tried not to think about Lava looking very much like Mad Eye Moody when it came time for her to quit being an Auror. He decided to change the subject.

"So what do you think of England so far?" She scoffed.

"The whole parts that I've seen of it?"

"Never mind. Sometimes I forget that we've been cooped up all summer. I feel as if I've known you forever, and yet I barely know anything about you." He blanched. "I'm sorry. That was inappropriate of me. Please forgive me." She stopped walking and turned to him, taking her arm from his. He only just now saw that they were in the Entrance Hall.

"No." She said.

"What?"

"No, Harry. I won't forgive for saying that. It was not an inappropriate thing to say and you shouldn't apologize for it. You were just being honest and I admire and appreciate that. Plus," She blushed a little and Harry found it adorable. "I feel the same way." Harry grinned, hardly able to believe it.

He offered her his arm again saying, "All right then. I withdraw my apology. Now, would you like to join me for breakfast, my dear?" She nodded and took his arm again.

- - - - -

It was night again, and Harry and Lava were sitting on the couch, reading. It had been an eventful day for them both. At breakfast, he had found that he only had two classes the entire day, while she on the other hand had six. He had, as he had promised, shown her to every class, even her Arithmancy class (of which he hadn't the slightest idea where it was until he had asked Hermione while Lava was in Herbology. He had sat next to her in both his classes hoping to talk to her.

It had been in vain, though, as she was even more vigilant than Hermione in taking notes. So much so that the girl in question had asked to borrow the American's notes in order to fill in some that she had missed that might come in handy.

In fact, the only words that he had gotten out of her all day were the ones in between her classes where he asked her how her class had gone. Even at lunch he had barely gotten four words out of her as she was going over her notes.

He had finally gotten her undivided attention at dinner though, when he had stolen her notes right out of her hands and sat on them. Then pretended that nothing had happened and started eating. She had glared at him for the rest of the meal, not even touching her own.

When they had gotten back to the common room, Harry still holding her notes hostage, he had sat down on one of the couches in front of the fire while she stood in front of him, her arms crossed over her chest and her foot tapping the scarlet and gold rug expectantly. He was sitting on her notes again and had simply looked up at her. She had held out her hand for them and he had merely asked,

"What?"

"The Ancient Runes notes, Mr. Potter." She said.

"What about them?" He asked.

"You are sitting on them."

"Does that bother you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I need them."

"Why?"

"Because I have to study."

"Why?"

"Because it's a class that I'm taking."

"Why?"

"Because I signed up for it."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to."

"Why?"

"Would you stop with the 'Why?' questions please?"

"Okay."

"Will you give me back my notes please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I thought you said no more 'Why?' questions." She sat down next to him on the sofa and turned to him, her arms still crossed over her chest.

"A: I asked for you to stop with the why questions. And B: that was a 'Why not?' question."

"Oh, okay then. No."

"Why can't I have them back?"

"Because then all you'll do is read them over and over and over again and if I'm not mistaken, we have another chapter to finish in our book before we go to bed."

"Harry." She sighed.

"What?"

"I really need to memorize those runes."

"When is your next Advanced Ancient Runes class?" She ducked her head down to look at her lap and he heard her mumbled something. "What was that? I didn't quite catch that." He said, smiling cheekily at her.

"Friday." She said a little louder.

"Ah. Well, then I think that you can take one night off, don't you?" She raised her eyes and glared at him again, only this time it was a bit feeble. "Come on, Lava." He said. "It's your first day here. You're at a new school with new classes, a completely different schedule, new people that you've never met before. You have to be feeling a bit overwhelmed without throwing yourself immediately into your class work. You need to take some time to adjust yourself, to get used to your new surroundings. Come on, you can't deny it." She sighed, and the feeble glare stopped.

"I guess that you're right, Harry." She said. "I probably should take a bit of a breather. All right. Give me the notes and I'll put them away. Then we can read for a while. It has been a very trying day. I want to thank you for helping me, for staying with me." She smiled at him and he handed her the notes.

"It was no trouble at all, milady. I shall be most happy to do it every day, since it seems as if the only classes that I have are the ones that I take with you, and you are taking more than me. So, let's just get comfortable for a while, shall we?" She nodded and set the stack of papers on the side table as he pulled the book from his pocket (where it had been all day) and flipped to the right page.

Her head had fallen onto his shoulder in its usual, comforting place, and his own head rested gently on hers. And that was how they were seated until the chapter was finished, and they each went up their separate staircases, after he had bowed his goodnight at the foot of them.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six Everyone Loves Her

It was Friday.

Harry was again waiting for Lava early in the morning, watching dawn start out of the window. He heard her light footsteps coming down the staircase and turned, hoping that maybe today - just maybe - she would decide to wear her hair down. Or at least in anything else but that damned bun. But, of course, he was disappointed. As he was every morning.

They had not had Defense Against the Dark Arts that week as their new instructor had not been able to get there yet. In fact, no one knew who the new Professor was.

Today they had Potions and he was dreading it. He had, indeed, passed in Potions OWL with an Outstanding. It was quite easier to make a potion when someone who loathes you (and the feeling is mutual) is not breathing down your neck. Even when it is a fairly hard potion. But he was quite sure that Snape was going to make him pay for it this year.

He walked Lava down to breakfast, as usual, where they were met by Ron and Hermione after a while, near the end of breakfast. Both looked a bit flushed and out of breath, but Harry took no notice of it as he was too busy focusing on Lava. When it was time, the four got up and headed down to the dungeons for Harry and Ron's (and yes, Ron had passed with an Outstanding as well, much to the redhead's own shock) only class of the day. Lava and Hermione both had advanced periods of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy.

When they had reached the classroom, Harry had started to grab a seat in the back of the room, but Lava had immediately strode to the front and sat down right in front of Snape's desk, pulling out her parchment, quill, and inkbottle (which she said were such a nuisance as she was quite used to writing with a Muggle object called a pen) as she had in every other class. And Harry, feeling that he would rather brave Snape more than usual in order to sit by her than to not sit by her, went and did just that, pulling out his own supplies and smiling at her when she looked over at him.

He saw Ron and Hermione out of the corner of his eye sit behind them, Ron looking at him with an astounded expression. After a few minutes, as Harry had assumed and feared, Draco Malfoy entered the classroom.

"Well, if it isn't Potty, Weasel, and the Mudblood. Got lucky on our OWLS, did we? I didn't think that weasel here would even scrape an Acceptable."

Harry paid him only a small point of attention, as he was focused on Lava still. She had turned back to her parchment after smiling at Harry, but when Malfoy had spoke, her eyes had narrowed angrily. Even more so when he referred to Hermione as 'Mudblood'

"Oh, and who is this unfortunate creature that chose to sit next to you, Potter?" Malfoy added, noticing Lava for the first time.

Lava looked up at him, an unimpressed scowl on her face and one eyebrow raised in indifferent annoyance. Harry watched as Malfoy's jaw dropped when he saw her face. But he quickly righted himself and spoke in his most pompous voice.

"You must be new here, my dear, or you would know better than to associate yourself with this scum. I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy." he offered her his hand.

She glanced down at his hand and looked disgusted for a moment before looking back up at him, rolling her eyes and turning back to her parchment, leaving his hand unshaken. Malfoy looked angry for a moment before shaking himself slightly and sitting on the edge of her side of the desk.

"I didn't get your name, darling." He said. She looked up at him with the same slightly annoyed expression, as if he were a fly.

"That's because I didn't give it to you." She said. "And I won't. So leave." She smirked sarcastically at him and went back to her parchment. Malfoy went a bit pink with anger and then did just that.

At that very moment, Snape swept into the room, all greasy hair, pale skin, and swirling black robes. He strode up to his desk, much as he had every year, his steps only faltering when he turned and was met with the sight of four Gryffindors at the front of the room, one of whom was watching him expectantly. He quickly righted himself though, and looked elsewhere.

"I must admit," He said. "That seeing most of you in here is surprising to say the least. I would not have guessed that a certain portion of your number got here on luck or fame." His gaze fell on Harry and Ron as he said this, but they soon flicked to Lava and stared for a few moments before turning to the board. With flick of his wand, instructions for a new potion wrote themselves. "Follow the instructions and, as in conduct with last year, bring me a sample when you are finished. You will be working by yourselves so expect there to be no talking whatsoever." This time he glanced at Hermione, who blushed.

As Harry and Lava began copying down the instructions, Snape hovered over Lava.

"And, you are?" He asked her in a not so civil voice.

"Lavatarniella Kathmerneniven, sir." Lava said sweetly, brining her bag into her lap and digging around in it for her ingredients.

"Ah yes." Snape said. "The _American_" His tone was one of disgust but Lava seemed to take no notice as she simply nodded and said,

"Yes sir." Then, "I have one question, sir."

"And what would _that _be?"

"Would you rather the powdered scarab beetles to be pre-powdered or would you like for us to do it ourselves?" She looked up at him, a true question and utmost respect in her beautiful eyes and Snape seemed to be caught off guard for a moment. But when he had gotten hold of himself, he smiled down at her and Harry gaped.

"Do it yourself, please, Miss Kathmerneniven. You should never trust the pre-powdered things; they may not have been crushed all the way. And we would not want anything to explode, now would we?" Lava smiled.

"No sir, we wouldn't. Thank you." She then went back to her ingredients, setting the pre-powdered beetles aside and pulling out the jar of dead whole beetles. Harry was still gaping when Snape noticed him and scowled slightly, though with a hint of a smile still on his pale face.

"Get back to work, Mr. Potter." He said quite civilly with, his words having hardly any bite to them at all, and walked away. This surprised Harry as well, but he decided to do what the Professor said. Maybe he wasn't entirely bad after all, just misunderstood. Or maybe it was just Lava's magic. He didn't know what had brought about this change, but he was grateful for it and in awe of it.

By the end of class, both his and Lava's potions were a perfect shade of translucent blue, and they bottled it and took it up to Snape. The Professor took no notice of Harry, but he smiled at Lava, who smiled back and dropped her jar of pre-powdered scarabs into the trash can by his desk, making his smile grow a bit wider.


	7. Finally His

_**Chapter Seven: Finally His**_

They had been at school for five weeks when Harry finally got the courage he had been waiting for since that first day over the summer break. It was Saturday and the common room was empty. The Gryffindors having abandoned it to bask in the last warm days on the luscious grounds. Even Hermione and Ron had disappeared. Where to, Harry could never hope to guess. He only hoped that they weren't ripping each other's heads off.

But he and Lava were still there. In their usual place on the couch, reading. Now, of course, there weren't that many chapters in the book, but they hadn't read every night. In fact, they hadn't even read most nights. Only a few, which Harry treasured. But today was a very special day because Harry was happy. And what was making Harry happy? The grand fact that Lava's luscious hair was no longer in a bun.

Oh, it was up all right, and still ensnared from it's glory, but now anyone who saw it could appreciate it's length, as it was in one long braid down her back. It was, at the moment, hanging over her shoulder and her fingers were playing with ends of it. When they came to a stopping point, not the end of the chapter, but still safe enough for them to take a break, he closed the book and looked at her. She turned to him and her beautiful eyes held a question. He swallowed thickly, gathering his courage.

"I - I need to ask you something." He said, a bit embarrassed when his voice cracked. She nodded, smiling encouragingly at him. He took a deep breath. "Would you - could you- Ah, well, um, I don't really know how to say this. I uh. well-" He stopped, panicking. She put her hand on his, which was resting on his knee.

"Just say it, Harry. Take all the time you need." Her voice was soft, coaxing, and patient. He smiled at her, her tone of voice giving him more courage. His hand turned up to entwine his fingers with hers.

"Would you, please, be my girlfriend? I've liked you ever since I saw you that first night in July." He wanted to go on, to tell her just how she never left his mind, how he was infatuated with her, how he adored every tiny thing about her. But he was a bit afraid of what she would think of that. But she smiled softly at him.

"Have you really?" She asked and all he could do was nod. She paused and Harry wondered what was going through her mind. It couldn't be good. She was so perfect, she could never feel anything further than friendship for someone so, so - average - like he was. He began to panic again.

"Nevermind." He said suddenly. "I'm sorry, that was not fair of me to ask of you. We haven't known each other for that long, and even so, you would never- Just forget I said anything. But please, first let me apologize to you. That was a very personal question and it was rude of me-"

"Harry." She said sharply. He immediately quieted, but he did not look at her. "Would you at least give me a chance to answer first? Before you go and start berating yourself with false notions?"

"But-" He started, only to have her cut him off again.

"No. It's my turn to talk and your turn to listen." He nodded mutely (as if he would ever disaggree with her!), but he still did not look up. The rug was suddenly extremely fascinating. The next thing he knew, he felt her cool, elegant fingers take hold of his chin and force him to look into her beautiful eyes. Her face was pushed so close to his and he could feel her cool breath on his lips.

"First of all," She said. "I want to get one thing straight with you, Harry James Potter. You are not as worthless as you make yourself out to be. I don't care what you say. I don't _ever_ want to hear you belittle yourself when speaking to me again. Ever. And second of all, as to the question you just asked me, _I'll_ be the one to decide whether I will or will not be your girlfriend. After all, you did ask _me_. And _third_ of all, I accept." She let go of his chin and leaned back, awaiting his reaction.

He was speechless. Had she just-? No, she couldn't have just- Did she _actually-_? He searched her face wildly, looking for some indication that she was playing with him, but her features were solemn and serious. She _had_ just- She agreed to be his girlfriend! The girl that he had longed for for weeks and weeks - his Goddess - was finally his! He had to say something - anything! But he couldn't will his mouth to move. He couldn't make his voice work. 'Oh, come on!' He told himself. 'Say something! Please say something!'

"I - Thank you?" Was all he got out, and haltingly at that. She laughed and raised an eyebrow at him saying,

"You're welcome, I guess." She smiled at him and all he could do was grin back. "So," She continued. "What now?" Oh, Harry could certainly think of a few things for them to do (Like snog her breathless), but he figured that would be rushing things a bit.

"Uh -" He started, and felt a sense of de'ja vu come over him. Why did he always come up blank on things to do with Lava? "Uh - Dinner?" He suggested, looking at his watch desperately. Yeah, it was around that time.

"All right." She said. "I am a bit hungry." Harry smiled at her, got up from the couch and turned to offer her his hand, but then he paused. He figured that now that he finally had some courage, he may as well use it.

"One more thing before we go." He said. She raised an eyebrow in question and said, "Yes?" He took a deep breath and decided to just ask it outright.

"Why do you always wear you hair up?"

"What?" She asked him.

"Well, it's always in a bun, you see, or pulled back like today, and the first thing that I ever noticed about you was your long, beautiful hair. And I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. So, I was just asking why you always wear it up because-" He blushed and looked down, embarrassed. "I sort of miss it."

"I'm sorry." She said, a bit awkwardly. "I never really realize that it's up anymore, I just do that because one, it's easier to manage, and two it keeps it out of my face. But I guess that every once in while I could-" And with that, her fingers went to the hair band around the end of the braid and pulled it off. Then she spent a moment undoing every overlapping piece of hair and Harry watched mesmerized as, bit by glorious bit, her hair was let down in all it's fiery splendor. "Let it down." She finished, running her fingers through it to tame it a little. "Just so you won't go through withdrawal symptoms." She smirked at him. But he hardly noticed as he was too awed by her hair. She laughed at him. "Harry, it's just hair." He nodded but could not tear his eyes away from it.

"It's beautiful." He breathed, barely registering that he was speaking aloud. Lava blushed a bit and tucked a strand behind her ear.

"Thank you." She said. She then stood up. "Shall we head to dinner, now?" Harry gave himself a little start and nodded vigorously. Then, smiling broadly at her, he offered his arm, which was accepted with a smirk, and led the way out of the portrait hole.


	8. Sweet Dreams

_**Chapter Eight: Sweet Dreams**_

After finishing their dinner, Harry escorted Lava back to the common room and sat down. He pulled _Daughter of the Forest_ from his pocket and the two began reading it again, Lava's head on his shoulder, and his own resting on her sweet-smelling hair. Part of said fiery hair had tumbled over his hand, which was resting on her shoulder. Harry turned his hand up to the strands and ran them through his fingers, relishing in its softness.

After a few pages had been turned, Harry heard the portrait hole open, and closed the book over his thumb, turning his head in order to see who it was. Low and behold, it was Ron and Hermione, both with identical grins on their faces and their hands entwined. Harry smirked.

'So this is how it's going to be.' He thought, finally understanding why the two hadn't been present at dinner. He watched the couple as they sat down on the couch adjacent to his and Lava's. Then Ron slipped his arm around Hermione's shoulders and Harry finally spoke.

"Well, it's about bloody well time, Weasley." He heard Lava giggle from her place next to him. She, too, had turned to see who it was, and he pressed a kiss to her cheek before flipping open the book once more.

"Well," Ron said. "It's about bloody well time for you, too, then, Potter." And Lava blushed, biting her lip to hide a grin, and then lowered her head to Harry's shoulder. Then, all that could be heard in the common room was the turning of pages from one couple and the soft whispers from the other.

When dinner was truly over, however, the common room was soon filled with Gryffindors, all adamant about not heading off to bed. As this meant that the environment was getting rather louder with each passing moment, Harry and Lava decided to put the book away for the night, and to invite Ron and Hermione into a game of gobstones.

After only a few minutes of playing this, however, Lava found that this was one game that she was not especially good at, and, after having the nasty smelling liquid squirted into her face for the seventh time, decided to challenge Ginny to a game of wizard's chess instead, which was agreed to only after she promised not to use the win-in-four-moves strategy.

Around eleven, many of the younger year students began yawning and finally headed up to bed. After that, the common room became somewhat less rowdy and Ron switched with Ginny, after the girl had lost all four games. When another hour had passed all the rest of the crowd began yawning as well, and all but the most diligent (or stubborn) students decided to trickle up to bed.

This included both Hermione and Ginny so Harry was left alone to watch Ron and Lava's chess match. After yet anther hour, however, Ron took Lava's last remaining rook with his king and the two were in a draw. Ron, looking pleased with himself for not losing to the beauty again, yawned and stretched before shaking Lava's offered hand, patting Harry on the back, and starting up the boys staircase with a long, drawn out yawn of a 'good night'.

Finally, Harry was left completely alone with Lava. She sat back in her armchair and looked at him for a moment, smiling softly. When Harry patted the sofa cushion next to him, however, she moved to it willingly, tucking her stockinged feet up under her. Harry turned his upper body towards her, leaning against the back of the couch with his arm stretched out behind her head. For a few moments the two simply looked at each other, content to sit in comfortable silence, before Harry spoke in a quiet voice.

"I'm not very good with words," He started. "Or with telling people how I feel about a lot of things. But, I just wanted to tell you – to say…" He licked his lips and took a deep breath. "I wanted to say thank you." Lava smiled at him softly, her brows furrowing a tiny bit.

"Thank me?" She repeated, also in a soft voice. "Thank me for what?"

"For taking pity on an english chap who has had a rather large crush on you for a very long time, and for saying yes to being his girlfriend, even though you don't know him very well." Harry explained, twirling a strand of her vibrant hair around his fingers. Once again he marveled at it's beauty, at how it shimmered in the dieing firelight as if it were made of flames itself.

"Harry," She said gently, taking his other hand between her soft ones. "It's not pity. If I merely pitied you, I never would have said yes, because that would not have been fair to you. I said yes because I have felt – something – with you ever since you first spoke to me. You were so nice and sweet, even though I admit that I was being awfully horrid to the three of you." Harry stopped her.

"No." He said. "You had every right to be annoyed with us. We did barge into your room because of our own curiosity, not really caring whether you were asleep or not. You probably didn't know where you were or anything, and you especially didn't know us. I don't blame you at all for having been upset."

"Nevertheless," She said. "I could have been a bit nicer once you all had apologized and introduced yourselves. But," She shook her head and changed the subject, seeing that he was about to object again. "Back to the point at hand, I believe that I have at least felt a companionship with you, with not a crush on you as well. So there's really no need to thank me for something that I get as much out of as you do. And as to the not knowing you very well, I know that that will change quite soon, for the both of us, so it doesn't really matter either." She was still smiling at him, and he felt his heart grow warm and an identical expression grace his own lips.

"Well, then." He said, lacing his fingers through hers. "I guess that we should say good night now and plan to see each other in the morning?" Lava nodded and he reluctantly untangled his fingers from her gorgeous hair. He stood up before helping her to her feet as well, not missing the graceful way her leg uncurled from under her before she rose. He led her to her staircase by the hand and turned to her. "Good night." He said, smiling down at her.

"Sweet dreams." She replied before rising up on her toes and brushing his cheek with her soft lips. She turned away, starting to ascend the stairs, but when he did not let go of her hand, she turned back, looking up at him. His other hand went to her waist as he took a slight step closer to her. His head bent towards her own and he whispered, "Sweet dreams, my princess," before meeting her lips with his own.

Something lit up within him at their touch. Little shocks of something akin to a cheering charm spread from his lips to every other inch of him in waves of dazzling light. After a moment, he lifted his head and watched as her beautiful jade eyes fluttered open, the lips he had just tasted spreading into a wistful smile.

"Well," She said, her voice even softer than it had been before, for it seemed that she was a little breathless. "If I hadn't been quite certain that I was going to have them before, I certainly am now." Harry smiled.

"Me, too." He said and slowly released her. "Good night." He said as Lava turned and started up the stairs. He watched her until she was out of sight and collapsed against the wall, touching his lips with his fingertips.

He had kissed her. He had actually kissed the most beautiful girl he had ever met. And she had kissed him back! And it had been so much better than Cho's kiss had been last year, although, he had to admit that Lava's wistful smile afterwards had been far better than Cho's sobs. He had never felt so alive than he did as he kissed Lava's perfect lips, and he rejoiced in the fact that he would get to do it again whenever he wanted to.

He ran his fingers through his hair. She was his girlfriend. He was the only boy that she would allow to kiss her, to hold her. He started up his own staircase feeling like the luckiest boy alive.

-- -- -- -- --

The next morning, Harry awoke early, stretching without bothering to get up. He had, indeed, dreamed sweet dreams last night. Dreams full of Lava in his arms, his lips on hers. After smoothing his finger over his lips again, he arose and showered quickly before dressing and scrubbing his hair dry. Careful not to wake the others, he picked up his bag and went out into the hallway, descending the stairs noiselessly.

When he reached the common room, he was surprised to find that Lava was not there yet. So he set his bag down and pulled out his Defense Against the Dark Arts book before sitting down in an armchair with his back to the staircases and flipping it open. After a few moments, he heard a light step on the stairs and he smiled softly, but did not turn around.

The person was coming down the girl's stairs and was trying to be very quiet, no doubt believing that they were going to surprise him. When the footsteps reached the landing, a bag was set softly down and Harry turned an unread page, sitting very still. He heard the steps coming up behind the chair and, just as they stopped right behind it, he said, "If you were thinking of surprising me, you shouldn't have worn heels." He heard a gasp, and then a sigh of exasperated laughter before Lava came to stand in front of him, her arms crossed. She looked beautiful, as always, and today he rejoiced to find that her hair was captured only by a white ribbon tied into a bow at the back of her head.

"I was being very careful not to let my heels touch, Mr. Potter." She said indignantly.

"Not at the top of the staircase, you weren't." He said, smiling and standing up after placing the book on the floor. "After I heard that and then that you were purposefully trying not to let them do so again, I knew what you were planning to do."

"Not fair." She said, pouting slightly.

"Yes, fair." He said, playfully taking her by the waist and swinging her around. She laughed gaily and smiled up at him as he set her down. "Good morning." He said, not removing his hands from her waist. "Did you sleep well?" Lava nodded.

"Very well, thank you." She said. "And yourself?" Harry sighed and adopted a weary façade.

"Not at all." He said. Lava's eyes immediately became concerned.

"Why not? What's wrong?" She asked, her fingers curling around his upper arms.

"I couldn't sleep a wink because…" He trailed off, looking away from her.

"Because?" She prompted, squeezing his arms gently.

"Well," Harry continued, looking at her again. "Because I couldn't stop thinking about how much I wanted to do this." And with that, he ducked his head to hers and captured her lips again. For a moment, she melted against him and his arms tightened about her waist. Then, she pulled away slightly and half-heartedly scowled at him.

"If I hadn't been thinking the same thing, you'd be in big trouble, mister." She said, and Harry pressed his forehead to hers.

"So I guess that I'm forgiven, then?" He asked, looking into her eyes. They crinkled slightly as she smiled.

"Only if you do it again." She said, and he was very happy to oblige. After a moment, he stopped kissing her and pressed his cheek to hers.

"Thank you for leaving your hair some-what down." He breathed into her ear.

Her melodic laugh sounded in his own and she said, "You're welcome. I figured that I owed it to you since you haven't seen it down since the first night we met." Harry kissed her cheek lingeringly as he heard heavy footsteps on the boy's staircase.

"Oh, get a room, you two." Came Ron's voice, but Harry merely opened his eyes and looked at his friend, holding Lava closer. She chuckled in his ear again and untangled herself from him, turning to look at Ron as well. Harry, slipping his arm around her slim waist, flicked his head towards the girl's stairs, not missing the fact that another familiar figure was coming down them.

Ron followed his direction and tripped down the last step, nearly falling on his face. Lava's hand was suddenly at her lips and Harry could feel her shaking with laughter. He himself, was not even bothering to hold his in, which earned a rather rude gesture from behind the lanky redhead's back as Ron turned to greet Hermione. They murmured their good mornings to each other before Ron turned to Harry and Lava and asked, "So, are you two ready to go to breakfast?"

"Sure," Harry said. "But only if you promise not to trip down the marble staircase, I don't fancy a visit to Madame Pomphrey today."

"Very funny, Harry." Ron growled good-naturedly. "Keep up those hysterical jokes and you just might end up there this morning." Harry laughed and the four of them headed out of the portrait hole.


	9. Hagrid

Chapter Nine: Hagrid

_**Chapter Nine: Hagrid**_

Harry sat next to Lava in the Great Hall as they ate their breakfast, his arm about her waist. It felt wonderful to be able to be so close to her, to be able to touch her and feel his arm around her. He wanted very much to kiss her again but, as they were now fully within the public eye, he refrained from doing so with much restraint.

After Harry had finished his flapjacks and Lava had completed her fourth blueberry muffin, the two bid their farewells to Ron and Hermione and headed back up to the common room to finish their homework early. Of course, Lava had done most of hers already, and so she was quite willing to 'help' Harry with his potions as he finished his charms essay. After a little while, Ron and Hermione joined them and very soon they were all finished and looking for something else to do.

"We could play exploding snap." Harry suggested. "The common room's empty for now." But Ron refused saying that he would prefer "Not to have his eyebrows singed off again." He then suggested going down to the kitchens, to which Lava's reply was, "Didn't you just finish eating three helpings at breakfast?"

"Four." Hermione corrected, shooting Ron an amused glance. Hermione then suggested that they all go down and see Hagrid. This plan was agreed up on at once an, after all of their things had been packed back up and stowed away in dorms, the group left the common room again.

Once they had reached Hagrid's cabin, Ron knocked and the door and was immediately set upon by Fang when it was opened a moment later. The bull mastiff failed to knock the lanky redhead to the ground, but was tall enough, as he was on his hind legs with his massive paws on Ron's shoulders, to still be able to give Ron's face a good licking until Ron pushed him off.

"Hello Hagrid." Hermione said, smiling. "We came to see how you were doing."

"Oh, I'm doin' a'right me self." He answered, smiling and waving them all in. "And righ' glad I am to have all o' ya come and visit me. An' I see you brough' Miss Kathmerneniven wi' ya'."

"Please, Professor, call me Lava, my last name is far too long for regular conversation." Lava said, laughing as she took the seat Harry held out for her at Hagrid's massive table.

"All righ' then, I will, bu' only if you don' call me Professor outside o' classes." Lava smiled broadly at him and said, "Deal," as Harry sat down next to her. Hagrid began fixing them all tea as the conversation continued.

"I hear tha' you all haven't been goin' to yer Defense Against the Dark Arts classes." Hagrid said, plopping down five large mugs on the table.

"Nope." Ron said. "We haven't got a teacher, yet."

"We don't even know who it's supposed to be." Hermione added as Hagrid poured them all tea.

"Well, I do." He said, sitting between Lava and Hermione.

"Who?" Harry asked as he passed Lava the honey jar.

"Why, it's Remus Lupin, o' course." He said. "But he's out on an assignment for Dumbledore righ' now. He'll be back soon, though." Hagrid told Harry.

"We had Professor Lupin our third year, Lava." Hermione explained from across the table.

"Yeah, he was the best teacher we ever had." Ron said, grinning.

"Why did you have him only in your third year? Did he need some time off or something?" Lava asked.

"No." Harry said. "He was forced to quit at the end of the year because Snape let it 'slip' to the Slytherins that he was a werewolf."

"What does he being a werewolf have to do with anything?"

"Our thoughts exactly." Ron said.

"But many of the parents, especially Slytherin parents, didn't want anyone as dangerous as that here, even though he wasn't dangerous at all. They're all simply prejudiced because of what he is. Unfortunately, Britain is not as understanding as America when it comes to things like that." Hermione explained.

"Exactly." Hagrid said. "Bu' the good thing is that he's back again this year, an' he should be arrivin' any day now, a' least tha's what Dumbledore believes."

"Good." Lava said. "I'm looking forward to meeting him."

"What assignment is he on?" Harry asked, staring into his mug.

"I can't tell yeh tha', Harry." Hagrid said with an apology in his voice. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Lava's brows furrow and she turned her face towards him questioningly. He immediately changed his tone, not wanting to make her suspicious.

"That's all right, Hagrid." He said. "I didn't expect that you could, I was just wondering, is all." Everyone at the large table seemed appeased by this and the conversation took on a different direction.

"So, Lava, what is it tha' brings yeh down 'ere on yer day off? And why is it tha' yer hangin' out with this lot?" Lava started to answer him, but Ron beat her to it.

"Oh, she's an honorary member of the group, seeing as how she and Harry are dating." This flippant statement earned Ron two swift kicks, one from Hermione and one from Harry himself.

"Is tha' righ'?" Hagrid said, beaming at Lava. She blushed prettily and nodded, glancing at Harry. "An' when did tha' happen?" This was directed at Harry and he answered by simply saying, "Yesterday."

"Some time around dinner." Ron said, having quickly forgotten the two kicks. Harry scowled slightly at his best friend, but Lava was speaking up now, as well.

"Speaking of relationships, Hagrid." She started, smiling evilly at Ron. "You may want to ask Ron where he and a certain young lady were all afternoon and through the evening yesterday." Ron stopped smiling and gulped, glancing quickly at Hermione, who was blushing now as well.

"Yeah," Harry said. "Where were you two yesterday?" This seemed to click something in Hagrid's mind and he gaped from Ron to Hermione.

"Blimey." He whispered. Then he roared out, "It's about time!" and he topped off everyone's mugs.

"Been putting it off, have they?" Lava asked, still smirking at a glaring, and blushing, Ron.

"Forever." Harry stated. "And putting me through hell right with them." He added, smiling at her.

-- -- -- -- --

The next Wednesday, they did, indeed have their first Defense Against the Dark Arts Class of the year. The four Gryffindors made sure that they arrived at the classroom early in order to greet their long-missed professor. The only one of them who was more excited about the meeting and following class than Harry was Lava, who had spent the last night listening to the other three rave about his classes and how wonderful of a person he was.

The four entered the room to find the weary-looking man standing in front of his desk with his arms crossed over his shabby-robed chest. He smiled at them and said, "I knew the three of you would be clamoring to see me. You aren't excited, or anything, are you?" He asked, chuckling. The trio each hugged him in turn and, as he let Harry go slowly, his eyes fell on the fourth among them. "And who is this lovely young lady?"

Harry proudly went to her side and took her hand in his. "This is Lava Kathmerneniven." He said. "She just transferred here from America." Remus's eyes did not miss the clasping of the two's hands and his eyes softened knowingly. He smiled at Lava and greeted her warmly, shaking her free hand.

"I'm very pleased to meet you, Miss Kathmerneniven, and I look forward to having you in my class this year." Lava smiled, a hint of a blush on her high cheekbones.

"I'm pleased to meet you as well, Professor. These three have told me so much about you, I can't wait for your lessons."

"Oh, don't let them fool you," Remus said, humbly. "They tend to exaggerate when it comes to the way I teach Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"We most certainly do not!" Hermione said a bit indignantly. "You're by far the best Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher that we've ever had here."

"Remembering the other four that you've had, one possessed by You Know Who, the second a complete fake, another a death eater in disguise, and the last a mad, power-hungry toad of a woman, that's not saying very much, Hermione."

"But-" Hermione started, but Ron stopped her. "He's only joking, Hermione, aren't you, Professor?" Lupin smiled.

"Of course he is." Harry put in, sqeezing Lava's hand. "He knows that he's the only one that we ever learned anything of any REAL value from." He grinned at the professor before pulling Lava to a seat at the very front of the classroom.

"Well, if you three are going to be persistant about it…"

"We are." Harry said, still grinning.

"I suppose that I must comply." Lava, smiling broadly, began to dig through her bag for her book. "Oh, you won't be needing that quite yet, Miss Kathmerneniven." Lupin said, effectivley stopping the redhead's movements. "I have a few other things in mind to do first today."

Lava nodded with a "Yes, Professor.' and a gleam in her eyes that Harry had only ever seen in Hermione's. He leaned close to her ear and whispered, "You aren't excited, or anything, are you?" This merely earned him a smirk and a glare out of the corner of her eye. Then the door burst open and the rest of the class began rushing in, so he gave her a quick peck on the cheek before settling back in his chair to await his favorite teacher teach his favorite class.


	10. Love

Chapter Ten: Love

_**Chapter Ten: Love**_

After the first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson of the semester, Harry and Lava had some time to spend alone together before her Astrology class that evening. After a quick bite to eat at lunch, they bid Ron and Hermione farewell and Harry decided to take Lava on a tour of the Hogwarts Grounds. The days were starting to get a bit chillier, especially for his little Southern Belle, and so he was quite happy to have her snuggle into his side as they walked around the lake, past the Whomping Willow (Which did not even take the tiniest of swings at the couple), and towards the Quidditch Pitch.

"I used to play Quidditch, you know." Lava said as they settled themselves onto a bench in the stands for a respite. Harry looked down at her lovely face staring longingly at the three golden hoops at the far end of the pitch, and grinned. He was amazed at just how much he and the girl of his dreams had in common.

"Really?" He asked, squeezing his arm about her shoulders a bit tighter. "What position?"

"Chaser. Our team made the State tournament three years in a row."

"You know, you should try out for the Gryffindor team. We need two new chasers now that Angelina and Alicia have graduated, not to mention two new beaters since Fred and George made their spectacular exit from Hogwarts. I'm sure that this years Captain would give you a fair trial." Lava's eyes met his, searching.

"Would they, really? I mean, I am a transfer and all, and I wouldn't want to take a spot that should have been a student's whose been here longer or anything."

"Oh, I don't think that he would see it that way at all. If you play well, I doubt that anyone can fault him for putting you on the team, especially if you help to win the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor again this year, I believe that McGonagall's gotten used to seeing it on display in her office."

"You really don't think he would mind? The captian, I mean?" Harry smirked inwardly, rather enjoying this game.

"There's no doubt in my mind that he wouldn't."

"But how do you know?"

"Well, because I know him a little bit."

"Well, then, who is he so that I can sign up with him?" Harry kissed her chilled cheek and grinned.

"You're looking at him, love." Lava's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed and Harry felt a small blow to his side.

"Harry Potter!" She exclaimed, pulling away from him. "That was not a funny thing to do!" But Harry was already laughing.

"Oh, yes it was, too!" He said, still chuckling.

"Well, now I can't try out, now can I?" She said. This stopped him.

"And why not?"

"Well, because if I do and you put me on the team, people will say that I'm only on the team because I'm your girlfriend, right?"

"Not likely." Harry said. "Everyone around here knows that I take Quidditch far too seriously for that. Why, I once had a huge crush on the Ravenclaw Seeker, Cho Chang, but I took the Snitch away from her anyway, because it's a game, not life. Sure, I felt a little bit bad about it, but, ulitmately, winning was more important that impressing a girl. Besides, you wouldn't stand for it if I did something like that to you. You have to try out with everyone else, and if I think that you're the best or the second best out of every person that tries out, I'll put you on the team, if you aren't, I won't - girlfriend or American or not." Harry looked away from her at the end of this little speech, a bit embarrassed that he had rambled on so, but then he felt to very cold fingers under his chin lifting his head to look into the beautiful eyes that he dreamed about every night.

"And you know that I wouldn't have it any other way." Her lips met his for a lingering kiss before breaking away. Taking a deep breath she said, "And I do belive that I WILL try out for a chaser position, now that you mention it." Harry grinned at her and caught her hands in his.

"Great." He said. "Now, let's get you inside and in front of the fire for a few hours before you have to go to the Astronomy Tower and freeze these beautiful hands all over again. Don't you own gloves?" He got to his feet, pulling her up with him and placing his arm about her shoulders again. She blushed and shook her head.

"No," she said. "I don't. I used to have this one pair of really nice ones, but I don't know where they are now. You don't really need gloves very much in Georgia. It doesn't get very cold and when it does, it doesn't last very long."

"Well, it gets very cold here. I'll tell you what." He said as they started back towards the castle. "I'll let you borrow mine until the first Hogsmeade visit, and then we'll get you a nice, warm pair there." Lava snuggled into his side with her arms about his waist.

"Thank you." She said, kissing his cheek. "That's very kind of you."

"It isn't at all." He said, holdin her close and sniggering. "I just don't want to feel those cold fingers on my bare skin anymore." He heard her scoff and immediately felt one such freezing hand on the back of his neck above the collar of his shirt.

"Like this?" she said, laughing at his wince.

"Yes," he answered. "Exactly like that."

-- -- -- -- --

Later that evening, Harry was dreaming of Lava's lips on his and he could swear that her lips felt almost real - wait a minute - without opening his eyes he lifted his arms and they came in contact with the soft feeling of a wool cloak. He closed them around this cloak, hoping to feel the silky softness of fiery red hair in his hands, as the dream Lava had been wearing her hair down, but her beautiful hair was not floating about her, so his hands travelled up to the damn bun that he knew would be there and he began picking put bobby pins and tossing them everywhere, relishing in every 'plink' that he heard. The soft lips left his and the head of soft, captured hair left his hands as the object of his fantasies sat up. He opened his eyes to find a chuckling Lava sitting on the edge of the couch on which he had fallen asleep waiting for her.

"A bit tired, were you?" She asked, pulling out the bobby pins herself. (Unlike him, she placed them all neatly in a pile on the table next to her.)

"More like eager for dreams of you." he said, sitting up and lacing his arms around her waist, burrying his face in her now free-flowing, wonderful-smelling hair. She chuckled, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Oh?" She said, resting her chin on his shoulder. "Well, you can dream about me all you want in your own bed, Mr. Potter. And I shall dream about you in mine, which is where I believe that we should both head to before I fall asleep on this couch as well." Harry's arms tightened around her.

"But I haven't seen you for HOURS." He moaned, trying to sound pathetic. "I've missed you."

"I'm sure." She countered. "But I..." She untangled herself reluctantly from his arms, only leaving her hands resting on his shoulders. "Am very sore and tired and in need of a shower and a good night's sleep before History of Magic tomorrow." Harry's brow furrowed in concern.

"Why are you feeling sore?"

"Oh, just from carrying that heavy bag around, that's all. Nothing to worry about." She shrugged. Harry looked into her face and found that she did look tired, even as she smiled at him tenderly.

"Turn around." He said. One beautifully arched eyebrow lifted in question. "Please?" He added. "I want to try something." She looked a bit skeptical, but she turned her back to him anyway. Harry shifted on the couch so that his knees straddled her hips and placed his hands on her shoulders. He began to massage them gently. He could feel the hard knots in the muscles there and gently eased them away for her. Her chin dropped to her chest and when he was done, her torso melted backwards to his. With his arms about her waist and his head on her newly realxed shoulder he whispered, "How does that feel?" "So much better." She turned her head to his.

"Thank you." she said. He kissed her lingerly.

"Anything for you, my princess. Now, you go on up to bed and go right to sleep, you're looking a bit drawn."

"Am I really?" She asked with a yawn, her brow furrowing a bit as she touched her cheek. Harry put his hand on top of hers comfortingly.

"Only a little. I can only tell because I care so much about you." Lava kissed him.

"Nice save, Potter." She said, standing up and heading for the stairs. "And I'll thank you to return all of my bobby pins to me tomorrow, or I'll promise that I will wear my hair up all weekend."

Harry gave a fake gasp and dove for the nearest bobby pin, which was on the hearth, and revelled in her musical laughter as she ascended the staircase. He then spent five minutes searching for the pins he had thrown and then took both them and the ones that she had left on the table up to his room, where he placed them on his nightstand so that he would remember to give them to her tomorrow. For as much as he had made a joke out of it, he doubted that he could stand three days straight of Lava's gorgeous hair ensnared in that damn bun.

-- -- -- -- --

It was after lunch the next day, and Harry was walking Lava to her Advanced History of Magic class as he insisted on doing every Thursday, even though neither he nor Ron had classes that day. They were taking the long way to get there, simply enjoying each other's company. Lava's school bag was over Harry's shoulder and her hand was safely tucked in his own. She was still giggling over how, whenever Ron was embarrassed, his face and ears turned the same shade of red as his hair.

She had gotten another dose of this sight just moments before at the lunch table when Ron, who had only awoken a mere fifteen minutes before the meal, could not stop laughing at Harry's need to return Lava's bobby pins to her, nor the seemingly hilarious reason that Harry gave for it (which had simply been the truth of the matter). The boy, who had been annoyingly immune to the glares that Harry was giving him throughout lunch, had only stopped when, fed up with the nonsense herself, Hermione had kissed him soundly in front of the entire Great Hall.

Aparently picturing this scene in her mind again, Lava let out a gay laugh again and Harry could not help himself. Stopping in the middle of the hallway, he kissed her. Then, in one of his brilliant moments of not being able to control what he said to his Goddess, he declared, "I am going to kiss you every time you laugh." Then, realizing that he had said this out loud, he ducked his head and blushed. His declaration, however, brought a smile to Lava's face.

"Why?" She asked.

Harry took a deep breath, steadying himself, and then said, "Because I love the way you laugh, and because I love kissing you, so I figured, why not make them go hand in hand?"

"Really?" Lava said, moving a bit closer to him.

"Yes." He replied, his hand going to her waist. "May I-" He cleared his throat. "Kiss you again?" Lava chuckled.

"You don't have to ask me, Harry, but, yes. If you'd like." Harry's lips descended onto hers as her arms came about his neck. Pulling away slightly, Harry spoke, his lips still brushing hers.

"Correction," He said. "I REALLY love kissing you." She smiled against his mouth and drew his head down to hers again.

He was so wrapped up in how wonderful it felt to have her in his arms, that his nornally sharp ears did not hear the soft footsteps coming towards them.

"Well, well, well." Said a cold voice that Harry knew well. "What have we here, Potty and his little Yank." Harry broke away from Lava and looked over at Malfoy.

"If you don't mind, ferret, I was in the middle of something, here." Malfoy sneered at him.

"Oh yes, Potter, I saw. What I don't see, though, is how such a beautiful creature as this can stomach kissing the likes of you. And in public, no less." Then he seemed to dimiss Harry and turn his full attention to Lava, who still stood firm within Harry's embrace, her hands resting on his shoulders. "You know, you could do far better than a halfblood like him. There are others in this school who would willingly show you all the wonders you could ever dream of." Harry's arms tighened and his lip curled, but Lava decided to reply herself

"Really? Because I dream about a rather tall boy with lean, hard muscles that will tighten around me whilst I'm in his embrace. A wizard who has great skill with a wand, so I know that he can use his hands extremeley well. A boy whose lips are soft and sweet, and those lips can make my knees melt away every single time they meet mine. A boy whose voice sends chills through my spine. A boy whose fingers are slightly rough from handling a wand and a broom, so that whenever they touch me, I get both goosebumps and little sparks of lightning wherever they make contact." She paused for a moment. Both Harry and Draco were staring at her, jaws slack. Then Draco cleared his throat.

"I can do all that and more." He said, trying to sound smooth and suave, but Harry could hear the slight tremor in his voice and his nerves grew tight once more.

"I wasn't quite finished." Lava said, and now she looked straight up into Harry's eyes. "I dream of a boy with beautiful eyes that I can sink into every time he looks deep into mine. I dream of a boy with thick, dark hair that is always messy, but always wonderful to sink my fingers into when his lips meet mine. I dream of a boy named Harry Potter. A boy whose every gesture towards me, every glance at me, tells me that he worships me just as much as I do him. Can you do that?" Lava's words were directed at the pale boy, but her amazing eyes never left Harry's.

"You can get lost now, Malfoy." He said, his arms tightening once mose around the girl of his own dreams. "I don't think that you can compete with Harry Potter." Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Malfoy's pinched face and faught the urge to laugh with joy.

"I won't forget this insult." The boy spluttered. "You had best watch your back, Potter." Then Malfoy turned and stalked away.

"Do you want to know something?" He asked Lava. She nodded. "I do believe that I have fallen in love with you." And his greatest pleasure in that moment was the one of watching her eyes light up with reciprocation and joy, even as she said the words back to him. His own heart burst with happiness as his lips met hers again.

When she broke away, she said. "But do you want to know something as well?" Harry nodded. "I'm not quite sure that you can compete with Harry Potter either."

Laughing, Harry escorted her to her class and then simply sat on the floor outside the door. She loved him. His goddess, his princess, his queen, loved him. His Lava loved him.


	11. A Horrifying Tale

Chapter Eleven: A Horrifying Tale

_**Chapter Eleven: A Horrifying Tale**_

Harry lay in his bed the next night, unable to sleep. His arms were crossed under his head and his eyes searched his canopy. He could not have been happier. Lava was just as much in love with him as he was with her. He couldn't have been happier. He shouldn't have been happier.

Why wasn't he as happy as he could - should - be?

He was so lucky to even know her in the first place. That should have made him happy. He remembered how wonderful he felt when he first saw her, and also when they had first played chess together. He was also extremely lucky to be with her, to be able to call her his girlfriend, and to feel the pleasure of having her hand in his all the time. That should have made him ecstatic. He was also lucky to be able to hold her in his arms, to kiss her whenever he wanted to. He was also the luckiest man alive to have her love him, and say so. That, too, should have made him happy. So why in the world wasn't he happy?!

Because there was something wrong. Lava had seemed distant all day. Not only distant, merely distant would have been fine. She was - she had seemed - sad, all day. Heartbroken, really. She had stared off into the distance in Potions that day, and her potion had been a completely different shade than the rest of the class's. The weirdest thing about it was that Snape didn't seem to mind. Even weirder was that he even appeared to have been - sympathetic towards her.

What was wrong? He tried to wrack his brain, but the snores coming from all around him made it very hard to think. So he kicked his covers off and headed downstairs. He was relieved to find the common room empty and he sat in one of the tall armchairs near the fire. Again, he tried to wrack his brain. Again it was to no avail.

He checked his watch. Ten to midnight. In exactly eight hours and ten minutes, he would have known Lava for exactly two months. He shook his head and stared into the fire. What could possibly be wrong? He wanted to fix it - whatever it was. But how could he bloody well fix it when he didn't even know what 'it' was?

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the soft padding of bare feet coming down the staircase or towards him (Apparently, he was getting pretty bad at that, too) until a hand touched his shoulder. He jumped slightly and reached for his wand, only to find that it was Lava. He froze and could simply stare at her.

She looked spectacular in the dying embers of the fire, but even without those, she would have looked beautiful. She was wearing a long silk nightgown in a dark shade of green that anyone but Harry would have said matched her eyes, but he was biased towards said eyes and so merely called it quite a lovely shade of forest green. Over the gown she wore a floor-length long-sleeved silk robed of the exact same color which was belted loosely about her waist.

"I'm sorry." She said, her voice hushed. "I didn't mean to startle you. Why are you down here so late?" Harry cleared his throat and willed himself to speak.

"C-couldn't sleep." He managed to get out. Lava's mouth quirked a bit, but she didn't smile.

"Me neither." She said, leaving him and sitting on the couch. Harry almost went to her, but stopped and watched her. She tucked her feet underneath her, looking like a beautiful portrait, her hair flowing about her, her gown an elegant contrast to the red couch and her fiery hair. One hand was resting in her lap and the other propped up her head with the elbow on the back of the couch. She stared deep into the dwindling fire and, after a few moments, seemed to forget that Harry was there. Harry didn't move a muscle, but watched her intently, hoping for some sign or clue as to what was wrong.

It happened slowly, so slowly that had Harry not been staring, there would appear to be nothing wrong, but there was. Her face started to crumple and her eyes to water. Her chin began trembling ever so slightly, and then a single tear slid down her silken cheek. Instantly, Harry was on the floor at her feet reaching for her hand. Her lovely eyes flew to him and her other hand swiped furiously at her cheek. She cleared her throat slightly and whispered, "I'm sorry, I forgot that you were there, Harry." Harry took her other hand in his as well, pulling it gently away from her cheek.

"You don't have to be sorry, Lava." He said, shaking his head slightly. "I just-" He stopped, took a deep breath, and continued. "I just want - no I NEED - to know what's wrong. What's troubling you, Lava? How can I help?" Lava shook her head.

"You can't." She said.

"There has to be some way." Harry begged her. "You've been distant and sad all day, and now you're crying, there has to be a way that I can help." She shook her head again, averting her face from him. "Maybe, if you told me what was wrong, you wouldn't feel so bad about it. That's what everyone tells me when something makes me upset." Lava started to shake her head again but he stopped her by taking a hold of her chin and turning her face towards him. He searched her eyes, those beautiful eyes that he worshipped, those eyes that loved him, those eyes that were right now full of tears. His thumb stroked her cheek. "Tell me." He said.

Lava took a deep, shuddering breath, and then said, "My parents were killed two months ago, tonight." Harry could have jynxed himself, why hadn't he thought of that? It was so obvious now that she had said it. He had met her the day after her parents had died because Dumbledore had brought her to Grimmauld Place the day after they had been killed. Harry immediately sat on the couch next to her and took her in his arms.

He stroked her hair as he said, "I'm so sorry, Lava. You go right on ahead and cry. I'm right here. I won't leave you." But Lava pushed him away.

"I don't want to cry!" She exclaimed. "I shouldn't cry, I have no right to cry!" Harry was shocked.

"That's nonsense! Of course you have a right to cry, Lava. Your parents were murdered and four months isn't really even that long of a time period, so I can imagine that it hurts terribly, and I'm sure that it will for a very long time. The pain of losing your parents, or anyone else for that matter, never really goes away, I know. But I also know that crying helps. Now, why don't you feel like you deserve to cry?" Lava shook her head. "Talk to me, maybe it will help." Lava shook her head more violently this time.

"It won't." she said. "Nothing can."

"Lava-"

"Just stop, Harry, okay? Nothing will help. Nothing. You haven't been through what I've been through. I'm going back up to bed, maybe I can get some sleep." Lava got up from the couch and started for the stairs."

"What aren't you telling me, Lava. It can't be just that your parents were murdered, because I remember telling you that mine were, too. So what else is wrong, what happened that night?" Lava, silhouetted against the dying firelight, shook her head, and climbed the stairs, leaving Harry alone until the fire went out completely.

-- -- -- -- --

Harry never had gotten to sleep the night before. He had sat on the couch in the common room until the sun had come up. Then he had hurriedly showered and dressed before leaving the tower in the direction of Dumbledore's office. Once he got there, though, he remembered that he didn't know the password that would make the revolving staircase appear (he really needed to stop doing that, he thought). Luckily enough, though, as soon as he had decided to leave and try again in the Great Hall at breakfast, the staircase appeared and the very man Harry was looking for walked down the steps. Dumbledore stopped when he saw Harry, surprised to see him.

"Well, hello, Harry." He said, nodding to the boy and smiling. "You're up quite early for a Saturday, shouldn't you be sleeping until well past noon?"

"Professor," Harry said, his own face quite serious. "I need to talk to you about something, in private." He took a deep breath. "It's about Lava." Dumbledore's face grew serious as well.

"Ah." He said. "Yes, well, you should probably some upstairs, Harry. I'll have someone bring up a spot of breakfast for the two of us. I daresay that this will be a rather long conversation." The old professor turned and headed back up the stairs again, Harry following close on his heels. Once they were settled in his office, Dumbledore in his great chair behind his desk and Harry in a quite comfortable one in front of it, Dumbledore started right in.

"Well, Harry." He said. "What do you feel you need to know about the lovely Miss Kathmerneniven?"

"Well," Harry said. "All day yesterday she was very distant and – sad. I didn't like seeing her so despondent and everything so I couldn't sleep. I went down to the common room to try to sort it all out in my head, and she joined me after a few moments. Then, she started crying, and I asked her why. She told me that it was because her parents had died four months ago and that she didn't want to cry over them. That – she didn't – deserve – to cry over them. But when I asked her why she thought that, she didn't want to talk anymore. She said that I couldn't help her because I didn't know what she was going through, but she wouldn't tell me what was wrong. I don't want to pry," He said. "But I want to help her, and I know her well enough to know that she's a very stubborn girl when it comes to things that are uncomfortable or upsetting to her and that she won't talk about it with me unless I discover it for myself first. So, I figured that you might be the person who would know what was going on and that you might be able to help me." Dumbledore sighed.

"Actually, Harry, I do know what is wrong. And I would much prefer all of this to be coming from Miss Kathmerneniven instead of me, but I know what you mean by the stubbornness and unwillingness to talk about it, which reminds me a lot of you, I might add. I also know that you, of all people, may be the one who can truly help her in her hour of need, and so I will tell you this in the strictest of confidences. You must tell no one, not even Ron and Hermione, what I am about to tell you. You must also make sure that whenever you discuss this with Lava, that you find a spot where you have absolutely no chance of anyone overhearing you." Dumbledore paused and seemed to gather himself before continuing.

"On August the sixteenth, Lavatarniella Callivania Kathmerneniven awoke at four o'clock in the morning as she usually did. She went through her toilet, and was dressed by seven. She then read in her room for one hour before her mother, Arlena, called her down to breakfast. Arlena had already been up for an hour, making pancakes and bacon and eggs for her husband, Padraic, and her daughter. After the family had eaten breakfast, Lava's parents retired upstairs to finish getting ready themselves. Lava read in the study of the house until her parents came back downstairs half an hour later. Arlena and Padraic bid their daughter goodbye and left for work at nine o'clock. The two worked as aurors in the United States Magical Armed Services, or USMAS. They were considered the top two Aurors in the United States, and, therefore, the entire magical world.

"After her parents had gone for the day, Lava left the house as well. She believed that she would not be gone long, so she did not take her house keys with her, and did not lock up either physically or magically. She aparated to a friends house three miles away, wanting to play a game of chess. One game turned into three games, which turned into gobstones, which turned into exploding snap. She ended up eating lunch at her friends house. After lunch, the two played two small games of Quidditch with the friend's three siblings. During the second game, Lava's parents returned home to find the house empty and unlocked. They ventured inside carefully, calling for their daughter. They carefully checked the first floor, and then Arlena checked the second floor, finding nothing. Whilst she was upstairs, Padraic went out into the backyard to check the gazebo, a favorite reading place of Lava's.

"The gazebo was occupied that evening, but not by his daughter. A black cloaked figure, his face covered by a dark hood, was waiting for him, knowing that Arlena and Padraic would come looking for their they daughter, knowing that they would come to the gazebo. Knowing all of this because he and his followers had stalked the Kathmerneniven family for weeks, hoping for just this opportunity. As quick as lighting, an Imperious curse was thrown at Padraic, who, unfortunately, was so flustered over his missing daughter, that he did not have the strength of will to fight the great power of the caster. The dark figure disappeared, and Padraic went back inside to find his wife in the kitchen, almost sick with worry over her missing daughter."

Dumbledore stopped to gather himself again, his eyes wet with tears, his voice hoarse. Harry felt the expression of horrified suspense on his own face. He didn't want to listen to he rest of the terrible story, but he knew that he must, for Lava's sake. Dumbledore took another long, deep breath, and then continued.

"As he was entering the kitchen, his wand raised to his beloved wife, Lava was just apparating onto the front doorstep. She walked into the house and heard her mother screaming from the kitchen. Lava rushed to her mother's aid, her own wand raised, only to find her father standing over her mother's writhing body as the echoes of her dying screams slowly stopped reverberating about the room. She watched as Padraic kicked his wife's now unmoving body, before slowly turning towards her with a wickedly maniacal grin twisting his face. She watched as he began to raise his wand to her chest. The wand that she had played with as a child, the wand that she had so admired for it's beauty, and then for the good deeds that it had done in the name of good, the wand that she had just witnessed kill her mother. Quicker than he, her own wand slashed the air as her voice cried out with an instinct all it's own 'Avada Kedavra'. There was a sudden flash of green light, so bright she had had to close her eyes. When she opened them again, blinking the brightness away, she saw her father's lifeless body lying face up next to her mother's. She screamed, a painful, horrible sound that was hear from one end of the street to the next, and then she fainted, landing in a heap next to her parent's bodies."

Tears were coursing their ways down both Dumbledore's and Harry's cheeks. Dumbledore wiped his eyes whilst Harry stared at him blankly.

"The USMAS had received many notices from the automatic spells that oversaw that goings-on at their top-auror's manor that fateful evening. The first had been when the imperious curse had been used on the grounds. The second when the Cruciatus curse had been used inside the house. The third and fourth when the first killing curse was used, ending the life of Arlena Callipsode Kathmerneniven. The fifth, sixth, and seventh being the second killing curse, which had been used by a minor using under aged magic, ending the life of Padraic Diarmid Kathmerneniven. Since I had been one of the couples dearest friends and a good informant, I was notified immediately of their deaths and made the short trip to Atlanta, Georgia. I immediately went to investigate the house and properties of my friends, where I was informed that Lavatarniella had been transported to the USMAS facilities in Washington D.C. for questioning. After thoroughly investigating the scene, I went to her.

"The poor girl was catatonic. Her eyes were open and she was sitting on that hard chair in that tiny little interrogation room, but she was, dead inside, you could see it in her eyes. They had to give her Veritaserum in order for her to be able to speak. As they were questioning her, I learned from the family attorney that I was to be given full custody of her once she was released, which she was shortly after, having been cleared of any charges which might have been pressed because of the severity of the situation. The gave her a sedative for her shock and sent her home with me." Dumbledore sighed.

"And there you have it, my boy, the whole story. The poor girl blames herself for so many things that went wrong that day. If she hadn't gone to her friend's house, if she had put up the magical security, if she hadn't stayed so long without send an owl or leaving a note, if she had had enough sense to know that her father was under the Imperious Curse, if she had only stunned him and not killed him. She blames herself for the last two the most of all. She believes that she did realize that her father was under the influence of someone else, because she feels that she knew her father far better than to believe even for a moment that he could even entertain a though of killing her mother, and that she simply killed him anyway. She believes that, somewhere inside her, there lives a cold-hearted killer who is just waiting to be let out so that she may kill again."

"But she's not that person!" Harry exploded, leaping out of his chair, furious that she could think that about herself. "She's not a killer. She couldn't be cold-hearted if she tried. She's a wonderful, beautiful person, inside and out. I don't believe for a minute that she would kill again unless she, or someone she loved was threatened, just like what happened that night. She can't have known that her father had been Imperioused, no one could have known that!" Dumbledore smiled up at Harry's passionate face.

"And that, Harry, is why you will be the one who will finally get through to her."


	12. A Needed Conversation

Chapter Twelve: A Needed Conversation

_**Chapter Twelve: A Needed Conversation**_

Harry did not end up staying to eat breakfast with Professor Dumbledore, but left shortly after the conclusion of Lava's tale. He walked back to his common room slowly, trying desperately to think all of this through. Lava's father had been placed under the Imperious Curse by Voldemort himself, from the sound of it, and had been used as a pawn to kill his wife and attempt to do the same to Lava. She had killed her father in self-defense, but it was no wonder that she blamed herself entirely for his death. But she shouldn't, that he knew for a fact. And, of course, she couldn't possibly have known that he was under a curse, no one could have.

Harry stopped and leaned against a cold stone wall. How in the world could he help? It wasn't that he didn't want to, because he most certainly did, it was just that – well, he didn't know how he could go about helping her stop blaming herself. He knew that she would be very angry when she found out that he had spoken to Dumbledore about her, and that would definately lose him points. He shook his head violently and continued on his way. Once he got to the common room, he stared up the girl's staircase for a long moment before ascending his own. He grabbed his broomstick and quidditch gloves and left again, heading down to the pitch. He seemed to do a lot of his best thinking up in the air, so he set a snitch free and shot up into the air, looking for it half-heartedly.

-- -- -- -- --

Two hours later, Harry had decided what he was going to say to Lava, if not exactly how he was going to say it, and, catching the snitch, put it safely away in the locker room, where he also tore a small piece of blank parchment from an old notice on the board and scribbled a note. He then made his way back to the school, but he did not go back to the Gryffindor common room, but instead he climbed the many stairs, still holding on to his broomstick, to the owelry. Finding Hedwig's brilliant whiteness immediately in the midst of all the other owls, he asked her to take it to Lava immediately.

He left again as soon as she had flown from the window (after giving his finger an affectionate peck), and went all the way back down and out of the castle. He sat down on a large rock next to the lake and waited, slightly out of breath from all the stairs. After waiting for about twenty minutes, Harry heard soft footsteps coming up behind him. He turned with a soft smile to find Lava there, looking beautiful in a soft white sweater and red cordoroy pants, her hair in a long braid down her back. It was October, after all, and it was beginning to get quite chilly.

"Hi." He said, holding his hand out to her.

"Hi." She replied, hesitating to take his proffered hand.

"You look very pretty today." Lava's mouth quirked and she mumbled a thank you, but she still did not take his hand. Sighing, Harry dropped his arm. "We need to talk, Lava." Her chin raised slightly, refuting his statement without words. "You know that we do."

She swallowed and said, "So talk." Harry stood and went to her side.

"Now, don't be like that." He put his arm around her slim shoulders and guided her to the rock, sitting her down and kneeling on the grass in front of her, his hands on her knees. "I need you to know something, and I also need you to listen to me. You're going to be angry with me, and I won't blame you, but you need to promise me that you won't interrupt me, alright?" He gazed up into her gorgeous eyes, pleading with his own. She didn't respond, only raised n eyebrow to let him know that he was to continue. Harry took a deep breath and decided just to let it all spill out.

"After you left me last night – after you didn't answer me, I couldn't sleep. I kept wanting to help you so badly, but I didn't know how I could with out knowing what was wrong. And, since you didn't tell me, I didn't want to pry, and I knew that even if I were going to, it wouldn't work, because you wouldn't tell me no matter how many times that I asked. So I –" He bit his lip. "I went to Dumbledore this morning and asked him what could be going on-" Lava's eyes widened in anger and she made to stand in anger, but Harry's hands went to her arms and held her. "I know. "He said. "I know, I had no right to, but-"

"Exactly, Harry." She said. "You had no right. I would have told you when I felt that I was ready-"

"No, you wouldn't have." He said. "Now just be quiet and listen to me. I only went to Dumbledore so that I could understand what was wrong, and how I could help, because I WANT to help you, Lava, and now I know how to do that. He told me everything that happened the day that your parents died. Everything that you did from the time you got up that morning to the time that you were sedated after being interrogated. He told me how you left your house without making sure the security was working, how you didn't leave a note, how your father was Imperioused while looking for you, how he killed your mother in front of your eyes, and then how you killed him in self-defense.

"And that's just what it was, Lava, you _have_ to understand that! You couldn't have known what was wrong, no one could have! I went to Dumbledore for an explanation because I care, and because I _knew_ that you would never tell me if you had the choice because you thought that you knew how I would see you afterwards. You thought that I would see you as you see yourself, as a cold-blooded killer like Voldemort himself. But I could _never_ see you that way, Lava, never. What happened that night – that day – was not your fault in any way." Lava shook his hands from her arms and covered her tear-streaked face.

"It was my fault." She said, her words slightly muffled from behind her palms. "I wasn't responsible enough to take care of the house's security in a time when I knew that everyone needs to be at their most diligent. I wasn't smart enough to be able to see that my father was under the Imperious Curse, even though I knew, in my heart, that in his right mind, he would have died before he would hurt one hair on my mother's head, or mine. As soon as they told me what had happened, what it was, I knew. I knew that I had known it all along. I can never forgive myself for what happened that day, for killing my father. Never."

"It was self-defense, Lava. You were merely saving your own life. Besides, it all must have happened so quickly for you, I'm sure that you didn't know what was going on in that kitchen, how could you have?" Lava shook her head.

"No!" She cried. "I shouldn't have lived. I should have died, too! I'd prefer death to this torture. The torture of knowing that I was the direct cause of my parent's deaths!" She broke down at this completely, her torso falling forward to Harry, who immidiately gathered her into his arms.

Kissing her lusterous hair, he said, his voice tight with control, "I'm glad that you didn't die." She stilled in his arms. "If you had died," He said. "I would never have met you. Would never have known you. I wouldn't have been able to love you." She pulled away from him slioghtly, her arms about his neck, wet tears still trailing down her cheeks. She smiled slowly at him, searching his eyes and finding only that he said the absolute truth.

"I love you, too, Harry." She said. He leaned up and kissed her, wiping her tears away with his tumb.

"You need to undertstand that what happened that night wasn't your fault. No one would have known that your father was under the Imperious curse. No one would have sacrificed their own life in that situation. You did the right thing. You did what anyone would have done. I know how guilty you must feel about it, but you have to know that you shouldn't feel that way. And I'm sure that your father would agree. He would never have forgiven himself if he had killed both you and your mother." He kissed her again, not letting her respond. "Now," He said, standing and pulling her up with him. "Let's go and get something to eat, I'm sure that you're famished." He took her hand and led her back up to the castle.


	13. The Last Happy Moments

Chapter Thirteen: The Last Happy Moments

_**Chapter Thirteen: The Last Happy Moments**_

The rest of the day was spent much as any other Saturday had been for the couple, save the silences were a tiny bit more awkward, and the conversations were a bit more strained. With each of these, Harry's patience waned a bit more until, finally, it snapped.

The two were sitting on the couch in the noisy common room. Usually, they would have been reading their book, but Lava said she hadn't been in the mood. Harry just sat there next to her in silence, stealing glances at her face, seeing a faraway look in her sad eyes. His arm was flung across the back of the couch behind her, because she had seemed uncomfortable when he had tried to wrap it around her. After a while, everyone began leaving to go down to dinner.

"Are you hungry?" He asked. She just shook her head, picked at her fingernails. Harry sighed inwardly and waited until the last person had left the common room, then he turned towards her. "Are you all right?" He asked. She nodded.

"I'm fine."

"Really?" Harry said, his voice taking on a rather sarcastic tone. "You don't seem to be 'fine'. Unless you expect me to believe that this is how you are when you're fine. All sullen and everything." Lava sighed.

"Harry," She said. "I – Just… Just leave me alone, please?" She looked at him and, seeing the scowl on his face, sighed again and began to get up from the couch. Harry locked his arm around her shoulders.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong, Lava." He said. "Trust me, I can keep you here for as long as it takes." Lava tensed a bit before seeming to think better of it and simply turned her head away from him. "Are you still thinking about your father's death?" She didn't respond. Harry bit the inside of his cheek. How could he possibly get her to understand that none of what happened that night was her fault? Especially when she had a vehement desire not to talk about it? But if he didn't, and she kept thinking about it, then it would always be sitting there between them, an elephant in the room, as the saying went.

"What will it take from me to get you to understand that no one could possible blame you for what happened? To get you to realize that it was all Voldemort's doing and a complete reflex on your part? How can I make it clear to you that if your father had killed you, it would have been worse?" At this, her head tilted the slightest bit towards him, and he perked up a bit, thinking that maybe he had found something to go on. "If you're father had killed you, Lava. What do you think would have happened? I can tell you, would you like to hear it?" She gave no response, but he knew that she was listening now, so he kept talking. "Voldemort would have taken the Imperious curse off of him and let him see what exactly he had done. Let him see that his own hands had killed his wife and daughter. And then, Voldemort would have tortured and killed him as well."

Lava shuddered involuntarily, tears starting to fall from her lovely eyes, and Harry squeezed her tighter. "It would also have been terrible for me." He said, his voice softening. "Because then I never would have met you. And I would have had a hole in my heart that nothing could fill, and I wouldn't have known why it was there because I would never have known just what exactly I was missing. I would never have known that the greatest thing that would have happened to me, would never happen because Voldemort had had her killed before I had ever even known of her glorious existence."

Lava looked at him then, her eyes wet. Her hand lifted to his cheek and stroked it, and only then did Harry feel the tears from his own eyes. "I love you, Harry." Lava said, giving him a weak, but still beautiful, smile.

"I love you, too, Lava." And his lips descended to hers with a relieved desperation.

-- -- -- -- --

Harry awoke the next morning to the pleasant sensation of fingers rubbing his scalp. His head had come to rest on Lava's stomach last night and it seemed that she had woken up before he had, which seemed to be a quite regular occurrence. His arms tightened around her middle as his cheek snuggle closer to her abdomen. "Don't stop." He mumbled, refusing to open his eyes. She did as he asked, but said, "Harry, we should probably get up, people may be coming down soon."

"Yes, and?" Harry said, ready to drift back to sleep at any second.

"And, sir, we are in a rather compromising position." Harry didn't answer her this time, nor, however, did he move. She sighed and his head lifted with her stomach, and he found it a rather pleasant sensation, and, smiling, he began to drift off again when he heard footsteps coming down the staircase.

"Well, I'm awfully glad the two of you are still clothed!" He heard Ron's voice snigger.

"What are you doing up so early, Weasley?" He asked his long-time friend. Ron snorted.

"It's not that early, Harry." He said. "It's almost noon."

"That's early for you, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but I got hungry."

"Good for you, you can go now."

"Ron." Harry heard Lava plead. "Help, please?"

"Oh, but you two just look so cute! Just wait until Hermione gets a look at you!" He felt Lava tense.

"That's it, come on Harry, up and at 'em, now!" Harry lifted his head.

"What does that mean?"

"It means, lazy boy," Lava ruffled his hair and pushed at his chest. "Get up and get moving."

"Why?" Harry pouted as he obediently sat up. She followed, pulling her long waves over one shoulder and beginning to finger-comb the tangles out.

"Well, because I'm hungry, too." She replied, stretching out the kinks in her neck. "And, I have things to do today."

"Like what?" "Like taking a shower, doing homework, you know, normal things." She proceeded to drag her legs out from behind Harry and stand up. Then she turned to him and offered her hand. "Aren't you getting hungry as well, sir?" Harry, still picturing a steamy shower, mentally shook himself and took his love's proffered hand, and, tucking it into his elbow, followed Ron out of the common room.

The morning passed much like any normal Sunday morning and by the afternoon it found Harry and Lava under a tree by the lakeshore. His back was against the tree as Lava rested on his chest, their legs covered by his cloak as they read their book. It was October Twelfth and quite cold, but neither of the two minded very much, snuggled up as they were.

After the next chapter had ended, Lava surprised Harry by being the one to close the book after dog-earing the page. Harry tightened his arms around her and asked, "What is it?"

"I was just wondering," She said, snuggling back into him a bit more. "What you guys do over here for Halloween, it _is_ getting pretty close, you know." Harry took her hand in his and began to play with her fingers.

"Well, there's always the Feast on Halloween night and Hagrid always grows giant pumpkins to put in the great hall for the feast. We can probably go down and see how they're doing so far if you want to. Or, if you don't want to spend the whole night at the feast, there's always Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party. Or we could just get into a great big lot of trouble. And the Saturday after the feast is the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, and I've been dying to take you there and show you all of the sights."

"Nearly Headless Nick throws a deathday party? Is he nostalgic or just insane?"

"More than likely insane, but it might be kinder to say he's nostalgic. If you do decide to put yourself through that torture, we won't be going until after we've stuffed ourselves to the gills with food."

"There isn't any at the party?"

"Oh, no, there's plenty. If you like decades old peanuts and month old roasts." Lava gave a shudder.

"We'll have to give Nick our apologies, I'm afraid, but I don't think I want to go."

"Good idea." Harry said. "So, what did you do at your old school on Halloween?"

"Well, there was always trick-or-treating for the younger children, and there were sometimes dances and things for older kids and adults. You know, where everyone would dress up in costumes like ordinary Muggles do. It was actually rather fun. You could go to a Muggle dance in your robes, and it would be a 'costume', or you could dress up in a Muggle suit and go to a Wizard's dance and it wouldn't really matter. I knew a girl, a witch, whose father was a Muggle, and he wore a costume to a Wizard and a Muggle dance, and do know what he was?"

"What?" Harry could hear the smile in her voice and was ecstatic that she was talking about her past with joy instead of sorrow.

"He was an apple, can you believe it? Muggles can come up with the strangest costumes. And the next year, nearly every wizard I knew was dressed up as some kind of food item, and guess what Angela's father was?"

"What?"

"A wizard! Oh, he got such a kick out of it."

"He must have been a very funny man."

"Oh, he was, he and Angela both." Harry heard her tone growing wistful and a bit sad. "She was always such a good friend to me, and I haven't written to her once since I came here." She trailed off, and Harry decided that it was time to change the subject.

"Well, I have to start Quidditch tryouts soon, I am Captain and the games do start next month, you know."

"Well, then why haven't you had tryouts before now, then? Who do you need?"

"Two beaters and two chasers."

"You should have started practices weeks ago!"

"Don't worry, love! I already have a few people in mind, including you."

"Harry Potter, that is no excuse! Do you have any idea how long it takes to-"

"I told you not to worry, it will be fine." Harry interrupted her. "Tryouts are next Saturday, and you had better be there."

"Fine, but I'm going to give you a fair warning, sir."

"About what?" "I will start to wear my hair in a bun that will be held in place by magic, if I start to think that you are going too long in between practices, do you understand me?"

"I had no idea you took Quidditch so seriously." Harry said, rather afraid at the no-nonsense tone of her voice.

"I take _everything_ seriously, Potter."

"Yes, apparently." Harry hugged her tighter to him and burried his face in her hair for a moment before she opened their book again.

As the afternoon kept ticking by, the couple by the lake, content in their happiness, never had the slightest clue that these were some of the last few happy moments that they were to have together for a very, very long time to come.


	14. Happiness Ends

Chapter Fourteen: Happiness Ends

_**Chapter Fourteen: Happiness Ends**_

The next day was, again, Monday, and Harry and Lava were now in Transfiguration. The two were trying to take notes on how to turn a tiny twig into a large iguana, but Harry was having difficulties. He tried to focus on what McGonagall was saying, he really did, but his eyes kept being drawn to the black ribbon that had captured Lava's glorious hair. It still spilled down her back, but looked so… constricted. Harry would write a few words, take a long glare at the ribbon, hurry to catch up to what McGonagall was saying, then glare once more at the ribbon.

After a while of this, Harry bent to his parchment, writing furiously with one hand, while the other ever so slowly, so as not to draw any attention to it whatsoever, journeyed to the end of the ribbon. When he finally had it in his fingers, he tugged gently, and the ribbon came away in his hand. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Lava's hair fell about her, and then watched as her quill stopped abruptly. Her head slowly turned towards him, her eyes annoyed. He simply looked back at his parchment. Lava then picked up her wand and pointed it at her head, muttering something under her breath, and her hair immediately tied itself into a bun at the nape of her neck. Harry stopped and stared, but she simply shrugged her shoulders and turned back to her notes. Well, that hadn't tuned out the way he had planned it to.

When class was over, he poked the mass of her captured hair with a finger as they walked out of the room.

"Was that really necessary?" He asked, and she chuckled.

"You shouldn't have taken my ribbon, you know I can't concentrate with my hair in my way." Harry wrapped his arm about her waist.

"And _you_ know that _I_ can't concentrate when it's captured."

"It was in a ponytail!" She laughed. "We are going to have to come to a compromise." She added and Harry grunted.

"Will you let it down now?"

"No, I'm going to teach you a lesson." He sighed and scolwed at the bun again.

"You'll take it down later, though, right?" She shrugged.

"It depends on how good you are." Harry dropped her off at her second to last class of the day and thought about how he could convince her to release her hair.

Well, he could write her a note saying he was sorry. The problem with that, though, was that he wasn't really sorry, and she knew that. So, what else? He stopped by a window and looked down at the grounds. He could just see the tree they had spent the day under yesterday. It really was shaping into a beautiful evening. There weren't many clouds in the sky, so there would be lots of stars. And none of what there were looked like they carried any threat of rain. He snapped his fingers. That was it! A picnic under their tree. It was perfect.

He practically ran down to the entrance hall and through the door to the painting of the fruit bowl. He tickled the pear hurriedly and stepped through the door to the kitchens as soon as it had opened enough to allow him. He was greeted immediately by the elves of the castle.

"How do you do, sir?"

"How can we be of service, sir?"

"Can we offer you a glass of pumpkin juice, sir?"

"Or something to eat, sir?" Harry held up a hand.

"No, thank you." He said politely. "I was just wondering if it would be possible to get a picnic basket made up for me? Apparently I have a bit of groveling to do, and I thought that a nice romantic dinner for two would be a good start to it."

"Oh, of course, sir!" Said one of the elves, and a few of them rushed off to beginning packing up a basket for him.

While they did, Harry decided that now was as good a time as any to visit Dobby, so he walked back towards where his friend usually was, alone by the fire towards the back of the kitchens. And there he was, apparently, all decked out in as many hats and socks and things that he could fit onto his little body.

"Hello there, Dobby!" Harry said, setting his bag down and kneeling.

"Harry Potter, sir!" The elf cried, and launched himself at Harry, who hugged the creature. "How is Harry Potter?"

"I'm fine, thanks, and how have you been?"

"Dobby is wonderful, sir! Dobby is so very happy to still be here at Hogwarts, even though he still has to clean Gryffindor Tower by himself. But Dobby is not complaining, Harry Potter, sir! Dobby loves finding all the hats and mittens and things."

"Is Hermione still making those? I thought she had stopped."

"Oh, no, Harry Potter, sir! Dobby still finds lots of them!"

"Well, I'm glad that you like them, and I'm sure she will be, too."

"Dobby was wondering, sir, how Harry Potter's special friend is doing?"

"My special friend? Oh! Lava? She's doing very well, thank you. I didn't know that you knew about Lava."

"Oh, everyone knows, Harry Potter, sir! All the elves think it's very sweet how Harry Potter and his special friend are always together, always so romantic." Harry started to feel a bit uncomfortable.

"Oh, well, yes, she's very, um, sweet, yes. Well, Dobby, it was great to see you, but I need to get going. I'll see you again soon?"

"Oh, Dobby hopes so, Harry Potter, sir!"

"I do, too, Dobby." Harry got up and scooped up his bag.

Out his way out, the other elves handed him a very large, and very heavy picnic basket. He lugged it back to Gryffindor tower and up to his room, where he dumped his bag and the basket. He grabbed the comforter off of his four poster bed and bundled it up, draping it over the basket. He then took a long shower and toweled his hair dry.

Despairing over his lack of decent clothing, he settled for his uniform pants and long-sleeved white shirt, the sleeves of which he rolled to his elbows. He then despaired again over his unmanageable hair as he tried in vain to make it lie flat, and gave up after a while, remembering that Lava had said she liked it messy. He then took their book from his nightstand and stuffed in the basket as well. Finally, he draped then comforter over one arm and picked the heavy basket back up with the other. Then he made his way back down to the Entrance Hall and out the doors onto the grounds.

Once he was by the tree, he set down the basket and laid out the comforter. He pulled the book from the basket again and set it on the comforter as well. Surveying the scene, he figured that it was the best he could do, and then he made his was back up to Lava's last class. When he got there, the class was just being released, seeing Lava exit the door, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to him. He watched as her eyes raked his change of clothes.

"What's this?" She asked, her eyebrow raised.

"I have a surprise for you." He said, kissing her forehead.

"What is it?" Harry just smiled and took her bag from her. Slinging it over his shoulder, he led her by the hand down to the Entrance Hall. Once they made it out of the doors and down the steps, he turned to her.

"Okay," He said. "From here on, you have to close your eyes and keep them closed until I tell you to open them, all right?" Lava looked skeptical and her eyebrow raised again, but then she smirked and closed her eyes as he had asked. Taking her arm in his now, he led her slowly to their tree and once he had her positioned in the perfect spot, he let go of her arm and stepped behind her, dropping her bag at his feet.

"Can I open them now?" She asked.

"All right." He said in her ear. He did not see her open her eyes, but he heard her intake of breath, and suddenly, her arms were around his neck. "Do you like it?" He asked, nuzzling his head against hers.

"Oh, Harry!" She said, her face in his shoulder. "It's wonderful! But, why?"

"Is it nice enough that you'll let your hair out of that stupid bun?" Lava laughed and withdrew her arms from his neck. Smiling up at him, she nodded. He let go of her and she stooped to withdraw her wand form her bag. She then pointed it at the back of her head and muttered under breath. In an instant, her glorious waves were cascading down her back, all the way to her waist. Harry kneeled behind her and buried his hands in it fiery lusciousness. "Hello." He murmured to it. "I've missed you."

Lava laughed at him and stood, her hair slipping through his fingers like silk. He stood as well, and led her to the blanket. Sitting next to her, he slid his arm around her waist.

"So, are you hungry now, or would you like to read for a while first, while we still have light?" He asked her, nuzzling his nose into her neck. She sighed.

"I'd like to say let's read, but I really am very hungry." She said, and he chuckled.

"Then food it is my princess, we can't have you going hungry." He withdrew from her reluctantly and began unpacking the basket.

The houselves had certainly outdone themselves. There was a very large jug of pumpkin juice, two goblets, two plates, two sets of silverware, four pastries stuffed with chicken and herbs, four meat pies, another basket filled with soft buttery rolls, two green apples, two red apples, a plate filled with different kinds of cheeses, a bowl filled with red and green grapes, another filled with strawberries, some covered in chocolate some not, a little box of fudge, and another of strawberry tarts.

"My goodness, did you leave _anything_ in the kitchens?"

"I told the houselves a romantic dinner for two, I didn't think they took that to mean an army." Lava laughed.

"Well, at least everything looks good." She reached for a chicken pastry and bit into it with relish as Harry poured them both goblets of pumpkin juice. He then settled himself down with his head in her lap as he munched his own meat pie.

"How were your classes?" He asked, looking up at her. She swallowed.

"Fine." She said. "We had a pop quiz in ancient runes and I think I got a few wrong because I didn't study all weekend."

"Oh really? Which ones do you think you got wrong?" Harry asked, smiling slightly. Lava looked out over the lake.

"I don't really remember." She said quickly.

"Hmm." Harry said. "Well, I doubt that you got any of them wrong, since you study them every chance you get."

"You mean every change you give me, which aren't many. You know, it's amazing you get your own homework done on time."

"I do all right." Harry shrugged, and reached for another meat pie. Lava simply smiled down at him. The two sat in silence for a while, finishing their dinner. Of course, they didn't eat all of it. One of the meat pies and one of the chicken pastries was left, as were many of the rolls, and almost all of the cheese.

Harry finally sat up as he saw Lava reach for the small box of fudge and, with the quick hands from catching snitches, he grabbed it up first. She raised an eyebrow at him and held out her hand.

"Can I have one please?" Harry considered the little box, opening it slowly.

"Hmm. I think that you can have one, maybe, but I also think that you have to earn it."

Smiling slightly, she asked, "And how would I do that?" Harry closed the box again and smiled at her.

"Oh, I think you can figure it out, since you're so smart." He said, placing the box behind his back.

Lava crossed her arms, placing a finger to her mouth in thought. After a studying him for a moment, she removed it and moved towards him. Once she was close enough, her hands cupped his face. Shaking her hair out of the way, she moved her lips close to his and whispered, "Was this what you had in mind, Mr. Potter?" She didn't give him a chance to answer, and her lips captured his sweetly. His lips moved against hers as his hands crept into her silky hair. He angled her head more as her arms slid around his neck. After a few moments of bliss, she pulled away slightly, smiling against his lips. "Now where's my chocolate?" She asked, kissing him again lightly.

Laughing, he pulled one hand reluctantly from her hair and reached around behind him. Blindly, he opened the box and pulled out a small square of the squishy fudge. Bringing his hand back around he placed the chocolate to Lava's lips, but as she tried to take a bite, he pulled it away and bit into it himself. Swallowing, he said, "Actually, I think you may need to do a bit more than that." Lava pulled back.

"Harry Potter!" She scolded with a smile. "That wasn't very nice." Harry shrugged, and popped the last of the piece of fudge in his mouth.

"Sorry." He said. "Want to try again?"

Sighing exasperatedly, Lava wrapped her arms around his neck again and kissed him fiercely. So much so, that it literally took his breath away, and it was all he could do to hold on to her thightly, one hand buried in her hair and the other clutching her waist. Again she pulled away from him slightly and breathed, "I want my chocolate now. And I'm not taking no for an answer this time, Potter." Harry nodded weakly and untangled his fingers from her hair.

He reached behind him and again plucked a piece of fudge from the box, he put it to her lips and did not draw it away this time. She bit into it hesitantly, and closed her eyes to relish the taste of it. She looked so beautiful that Harry tossed away the rest of the chocolate and pulled her to him, capturing her lips again. Her fingers went to his hair again as he leaned her back on the blanket.

When he felt her back hit the ground, he pulled away from her a bit to look at her in the dying sunset. She was smiling up at him, her hair burning all around her. She was a wonder, and she was his. He admired her for a moment before bending his head to hers again. He enjoyed a minute of kissing the beautiful creature before he began feeling strange.

His head felt light and his breathing was erratic, but he decided not to think anything of it, as he wanted to enjoy it.

A moment later, though, all thought left him as he blacked out.


	15. Forgotten Heartaches Remembered

Chapter Fifteen: Forgotten Heartaches Remembered

_**Chapter Fifteen: Forgotten Heartaches Remembered**_

Harry awoke freezing. He pulled his sheets up more and reached for his comforter, which was apparently out of reach. He sat up to look for it, but it was nowhere to be found. He wondered what had happened to it.

Deciding that it was better to get up and try to get warm than to stay in bed, he threw his sheets back and swung his legs over the bed, only to find that he was still dressed in his school pants and shirt, even his shoes were still on. Even stranger, was that he was covered in mud, as were the sheets he had been wrapped up in. What in Merlin's name had happened yesterday?

He wracked his brain, but the last thing he remembered was walking Lava to her Ancient Runes class. No, that couldn't be right, there was still the whole second half of the day after that, he must have done something. He would have at least walked Lava to dinner after her last class, wouldn't he? Of course he would, he always did. So then what had he done?

He shook his head. He couldn't for the life of him remember. He got up and removed his muddy clothes, glad that he only had one class today. He showered carefully and then put on a fresh uniform. As he was tying his tie, Ron walked through the door, and only then did Harry realize that he was alone in the room. Harry watched Ron hesitate at the door and glare at him before moving to his trunk.

"Well, good morning to you, too." Harry said, puzzled by Ron's surliness.

"Oh, so you're speaking to me now?" Ron snapped, rifling through his trunk. Harry finished with his tie and turned to his friend.

"Since when have I not been speaking to you?" He demanded. Ron rounded on him, holding his Care of Magical Creatures book.

"Last night, genius, remember? You came stalking into the common room after disappearing with Lava all evening covered in mud and with Lava nowhere in sight. I tried to ask you what had happened and you just push right past me and stalked up the stairs. And Hermione says that Lava never went to bed last night, so would you care to tell me what in the bloody hell happened?" Harry was stunned. He shook his head, his jaw slightly open.

"I don't know, mate." He said, his brow furrowing.

"You don't know?" Ron shouted incredulously.

"I don't remember." Harry said, his voice a bit desperate.

"Oh, that's rich. You don't remember what happened to have you as surly as a werewolf, or why your girlfriend has gone missing?" Ron scoffed at him. "You know, I realize that we haven't been hanging out together much recently, but I figured that you would at least still tell me things, and not try to make up lame excuses about them."

"I'm not-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Harry." Ron said, stalking to the door. "If and when you finally decide to tell me, I'll be in the common room. Class is in twenty minutes, if you care." Then Ron slammed the door, leaving Harry stunned and confused. What in bloody hell had happened last night?

Harry grabbed his jacket, his cloak, and his book, and ran down the stairs to the common room, only to stop dead near the bottom when he saw the crowd gathered near the portrait hole. Something was very, very wrong. Every single Gryffindor student was there at the same time. Harry spotted Professor McGonagall at the head of the crowd and watched as she shushed everyone. When they were all quiet, she began to speak.

"Now, I know that you are all wondering why you were dismissed from your classes and sent back here. I am not permitted to tell you the specifics of the situation, but I must tell you all grave news. A student has gone missing, and we believe that she may have been kidnapped right off the school grounds some time yesterday evening. I cannot tell you anything else at this time, but you are all instructed to stay in the tower until Professor Dumbledore says otherwise."

Harry was gripping the banister with all his might, and his whole body shook with fear. Lava was the missing student, and he knew it. Something had happened to her last night, something terrible. But he couldn't remember it, whatever it was.

"Now, could I please have Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Potter come outside, please? Professor Dumbledore would like to have a talk with the three of you." It took every single shred of will inside of Harry to let go of the banister and walk slowly down the rest of the stairs and through the crowd. When he got to McGonagall, Ron and Hermione were already standing next to her. Hermione looked sick and Ron was scowling murderously at Harry.

McGonagall led them out of the portrait hole and to Dumbledore's office without a word, but Harry could read the look on her pale face. Her lips were in a tiny line and every wrinkle on her face stood out. She was worried and angry. Did she know what had happened? Harry wondered this as they walked, for McGonagall never looked at him, just straight ahead, almost as if she were trying with all her might _not_ to look at him.

Once they were at the statue of the Gargoyle, McGonagall stated the password (Acid Pops) in tight, angry voice, and the revolving stairs took them up to Dumbledore's office door. McGonagall did not knock, but simply walked in and strode to stand beside Dumbledore's desk, leaving the trio by the door. As the three came closer, Harry was surprised to see the look on Dumbledore's face. He was livid, there was absolutely no spark of happiness in his eyes, but he was also sad, so very sad that Harry's heart plummeted. Was Lava dead? What had happened!

"Please sit down." Dumbledore said, staring at Harry. Oh dear, sweet Merlin, what had he done? Harry sat down heavily in the plush armchair across from Dumbledore and heard Ron and Hermione do the same. Never once taking his eyes off Harry, Dumbledore began to speak. "As I am sure the three of you have already figured out, the missing student _is_ Miss Kathmerneniven. She was kidnapped from the grounds last night shortly after the thunder storm began, and she is in Voldemort's possession as of this morning. Professor Snape was called away earlier to view the Dark Lord's 'prize'."

Dumbledore's voice was sad, but cold, and he watched Harry with a hard look in his eyes the entire time he spoke. Harry faintly heard Hermione cry out, Ron curse vehemently, and then Hermione's harsh tears, but he was incapable of any of those. His stomach and throat were clenched so hard, but all he knew was the raw, sharp pain in his chest. His hands shook ferociously and he tightened them into hard fists on the arms of his chair. His teeth clenched together as his breaths came out in ragged gasps. Only when he felt moisture on his lips did he realize that he was, indeed, crying as well. The next thing he knew, Ron had rounded on him, seizing him by his shirt and lifting him out of his chair.

"What the bloody hell did you do to her!" He was yelling, but Harry hardly heard him, even though the exact same thing was running through his own mind.

"Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore said, his voice still cold, but a bit calmer now. "If you would kindly let Mr. Potter down, perhaps he will tell us what happened by the lake last night." Harry felt himself released and slowly sank back into his chair, his eyes on Dumbledore.

"I don't remember." He said, his jaw aching. He saw something in Dumbledore's eyes flash and vaguely heard Ron cursing at him.

"Now, now, Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore said quietly. "I don't believe that the use of such language will help the situation any." As Ron quieted his ranting a bit, Dumbledore kept staring at Harry. After a moment, he spoke again. "I am going to perform Legilimency on you, Harry." He said, his voice quiet, and now Ron tirade stopped abruptly. Harry managed a small nod and Dumbledore drew his wand.

He pointed it at Harry's head and said, "Legilimens." Harry winced, waiting for the oncoming vision of horror, but none came to him. Dumbledore, though, was apparently seeing something that he couldn't. After a long moment, Dumbledore lowered his wand and sighed, looking old. "You still didn't see that, did you Harry?" He asked, and Harry shook his head.

Dumbledore nodded and stood, walking to the bookcase. He tapped four books and the case split and shrank into the wall, allowing the large pensieve to move out. "Come here, Harry." Dumbledore said, and it was on rubber limbs that Harry did. Dumbledore took his arm and put the tip of his wand to Harry's temple. "I'm very sorry, Harry." He said. "But this will hurt quite a bit." And before Harry could do anything, the was a sharp pain in the side of his head, which grew and grew until it felt as if it was on fire, and then it wrapped itself around the rest of his head, feeling like it was melting his brain. But he grit his teeth and bore it, knowing that he needed to know what he had done. What had been so horrible that his brain had blocked it from him so well. Then, all of the sudden, the pain was gone, and he felt light-headed. So much so, in fact, that his knees went limp and he sagged into Dumbledore's side.

"Mr. Weasley, would you kindly come over here and help Harry to stand? And Minerva, would you and Miss Granger kindly come over here as well, I believe that you should all see this." Only now did Harry notice the very long, wispy strand that was hanging from Dumbledore's wand. Only, it was not a bluish-white color, it was tinged a faint red. Dumbledore guided the strand to the pensieve and it left the wand almost too easily. After considering it for a moment, Dumbledore said, "All right, now a finger should do, Mr. Weasley, if you could help Harry?" And he touched the surface of the liquid with a finger, the others did the same and Harry, with Ron's helping hand, did too.

And then he was falling, and when he landed it was quite hard. Had it not been for Ron, he would have collapsed. Now, feeling tense, he looked about his surroundings, and there he was, sitting on his missing comforter with Lava, an empty picnic basket sitting next to them. Lava was kissing him fervently, and he was apparently reciprocating, because when she pulled away, he was gasping for breath. He heard her murmur something about chocolate, he nodded and reached behind him, coming back with a small piece of fudge, which he held for Lava to bite, and then he was kissing her again, throwing away the rest of the chocolate violently, and bending her backwards onto the blanket, narrowly missing the full bowl of strawberries.

Harry began to tremble and felt Ron's arm tighten, but in friendship or anger he did not know. The Harry from his memory pulled up from Lava a bit, and Harry could just catch a flash of red in his eyes before they turned green again, but now they were cold and calculating. And then Harry watched as his memory-self bent back to Lava, kissing her fiercely, watched as the fingers the were tangled in her hair loosened themselves and slid down her lithe body.

His stomach heaved as his hand came to her thigh, and then made it's way back up and under her uniform skirt, and then she began to struggle under him. Harry tried to get away from Ron, to go to Lava, to help her, but Ron's arm was locked tight, and would not let him go. Harry felt Dumbledore beside him.

"It's not you, Harry." He said, laying a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder.

"It doesn't matter if it's me or not!" He cried. "I have to help her!"

"You can't, mate." Ron said, and Harry looked at him desperately. Ron's face was hard and angry, so angry that tears had come to his eyes. "It not happening now, it already has."

"Watch, Harry." Dumbledore said, and Harry looked back to the horrible scene by the tree. Lava had successfully pulled her lips from Harry's.

"Harry! Come on, stop. This isn't funny anymore, alright?" Her hands were pushing at his shoulders, but he wasn't relenting.

"I know." He simply said, his voice cold and unemotional.

"What has gotten into you? Get off of me right now, or so help me, Harry Potter!" Harry laughed and finally rolled off of her, lying on his back next to her. Lava immediately sat up and slapped his arm. "What's wrong with you?" She said angrily. "You think that after only one month of dating and a romantic picnic suddenly means that I'm going to put out?"

"Oh, come on, Lava." Harry said, sitting up suddenly. "Did you honestly think that I went through all of this trouble just to get you to let your hair out of that damned bun? Ha, not bloody likely."

"Excuse me?" Lava's voice was like acid, Harry had never seen her this angry before, especially not at him.

"You know what I meant, don't try and act stupid. You didn't really think that I would act like a lovesick puppy for nothing, did you? That I would hold your hand and tell you that it was okay with me that you murdered your father without knowing that there was something in it for me soon?" Lava looked as if Harry had slapped her, all the anger was gone from her face, and shock and hurt had replaced it. She crossed her arms over her stomach and took a deep breath to compose herself.

"So, all those things you said about it not being my fault and that it was better this way were just lies to get me to sleep with you?"

"Of course they were!" Harry scoffed. "What else would they be? You didn't seriously believe that I could ever truly love a murderer, did you? I mean, come on, love, I'm Harry Potter. I could never be in love with a person who killed someone, it goes against everything that I believe in."

Harry could see that Lava was gasping for air now, and he knew exactly what this was doing to her. She was already so vulnerable about what had happened to her father, and he had believed that he had just gotten through to her, and now… Now whatever was controlling him was destroying her, piece by piece. Running a hand through her glorious hair, Lava stood and walked unsteadily to the tree. Putting a hand on it's trunk to steady herself, she stared out across the lake, into the sunset. Harry could see the glistening tears on her pale cheeks, and longed to pull her into his arms and comfort her. The memory Harry got to his feet, too, but he did it slowly, as if he were a predator stalking its prey.

"But, you knew that already didn't you?" He said, his voice soft and cunning, and the smile on his face made Harry's heart turn cold. "You knew that this was all far too good to be true. I know you did." The memory Harry stalked towards Lava, whose shoulders had drooped and face had fallen. He stopped when he was close behind her. Harry's nose nuzzled her hair lightly, as his arm came around her. "You knew that someone like me was far too good for someone like you. You barely even believed me when I told you that I loved you, that I had been waiting my whole life for you and hadn't even known it." The memory Harry chuckled and touched Lava's cheek with a finger. She flinched away from it, shutting her eyes against his words. "That's a great line, isn't it? I'll have to use it again sometime."

And now Harry could feel the tears on his own cheeks. He reached up to scrub them away, but stopped as he heard a roll of thunder. He looked up to see that dark storm clouds were rolling in fast from behind them. Looking back at the tree, he saw that the two had taken no notice of them. The memory Harry's fingers were now tracing down Lava's neck.

"So, are we going to do it, or are you still not in the mood?" Lava shook her head slightly, and he became suddenly angry. "Why, you little tease!" He shouted and snatched her shoulder, turning her violently to face him, but as she came around, her hand came up and struck him across the face hard, snapping his head to the side. As the rain began to fall, the memory Harry held his cheek for a moment, looking at Lava as if considering. There was so much anger and pain in her eyes that Harry could not bring himself to look into their tortured jade depths for very long.

He looked back at himself, just as his own hand came up and backhanded her with enough force to send her into the trunk of the tree. He watched helplessly as her head hit with a sickening sound, and then she went limp and slid down, unconscious.

He then watched as the memory Harry ran a hand through his hair, smiled sickeningly down at Lava's limp body, turned and strode back up to the castle in the pouring rain. Harry's sore eyes moved back to Lava's helpless form for a split second before the onlookers were lifted back to Dumbledore's office.

Once there, Harry let himself collapse. Ron helped him back to his chair where he bent over his knees, his head in his hands. The tears came fierce and hot, sobs tearing through his body. He felt arms come around him, and he would have fought them off, if he had had enough energy and willpower to do it.

"You know who did this, don't you, Harry?" Dumbledore's quiet voice asked. Harry nodded miserably, unable to speak.

"It was You Know Who?" Ron asked, his voice hoarse.

Harry nodded again as Dumbledore said, "Yes, Mr. Weasley." He continued. "Sometime during the picnic, Voldemort apparently decided to check in on his connection with Harry, undoubtedly hoping to get some information about Lava or the Order. He probably found Harry at a moment of his romantic evening where he was feeling so very happy, that it may even have hurt Voldemort to feel it, too. He then decided what to do very quickly. He took over Harry's mind, forcing Harry's own self into a tiny corner, and then proceeded to get the two to part ways, to get Lava alone and helpless where his forces could get to her easily. I'm sure that the conversation we just heard was also a part of his plan. I'm not sure what it was just yet, but it was apparently most effective." Dumbledore stopped, thinking.

He then said, "Right now, I would like for the two of you to take Harry to his room so that he can get a bit of rest, I believe he needs it. I'll send Madame Pomphrey up soon with a draught that will help you to get some sleep, Harry."

"No!" Harry shouted vehemently. "No, I can't just sleep while Lava is… while Lava is…" He couldn't think of anything to say, so he just shook his head.

"I'm afraid that there is nothing that you can do at the moment, Harry. And I promise you that as soon as we have any news at all, I will tell you right away, but you'll be no good to anyone if you are exhausted. Just sleep for a few hours, and then you can be back in here and we can wait for news together, all right?" Dumbledore's voice was calm and soothing, sympathetic. Harry nodded dully and allowed Ron to help him from his chair and to the door.

"Any word, Dumbledore, any at all, and I want to know immediately."

"That's fine, Harry. You will, I promise." Harry nodded again and the trio left the room.


	16. Horrid Dreams

Chapter Sixteen: Horrid Dreams

_**Chapter Sixteen: Horrid Dreams**_

Harry drank the revolting potion that Madame Pomphrey had handed to him, and immediately began to feel drowsy.

"Now this will help you get to sleep, Mr. Potter, but you'll be able to wake up at any time, all right?" Harry nodded his understanding, and sank to his pillows, drawing his sheets around him as Madame Pomphrey left the room. Someone had put fresh sheets on his bed, as well as a comforter, but he had immediately cast the thing across the room, unable to look at it without feeling disgust. Now, as sleep washed over him, all he could think about was Lava's beautiful face covered in painful tears.

In his mind, he again watched her looking out over the waters of the lake, her hand on the trunk of the tree, and, suddenly, he wasn't by the lake any longer. He didn't know where he was, but the room was dim with no windows, but in the faint light, he could see a figure on the ground in the middle of the room. He tried to step toward it, but he couldn't move.

"Hello, Harry." Hissed a cold voice that he knew all too well. "I decided to let you watch my little chat with our dear Lavatarniella. Now, if you could just manage to keep yourself quiet, I'll allow you to stay, but I'm afraid I can't let you speak to her, it would ruin the whole point of yesterday's little escapade, which I'm sure Dumbledore has shown you by now. So, if you'll just wait a moment." Harry could not see Voldemort, but he believed that was due to seeing things through Voldemort's own eyes. A moment later, however, light flared in the small room, and Harry could now see that the figure on the floor was, indeed, Lava.

She was lying on her stomach with her beautiful hair cascading all around her. One cheek was turned upward, and Harry could see the livid bruise which his own hand had given her. His stomach churned, and he could hear Voldemort chuckling faintly. Then, there were Death Eaters all around Lava's form, and the air was charged with anticipation. Harry could see Snape and Belatrix Lestrange, and Lucius Malfoy. The first was almost composed save for a slight look of disgust as he stared down at Lava, the second was caressing her wand and almost salivating, and the third wore a sneering smile. There were others as well, but Harry did not dwell on them as he saw Lava's form twitch. Her glorious eyes fluttered open and her hand moved to her temple as if in pain. Then she stopped as she caught sight of the people around her, and her eyes turned wary. She sat up as Voldemort began to speak.

"Good morning, my dear." He hissed sweetly. "I do hope that little bump on your head doesn't bother you too terribly, I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid that it was necessary. Now, would you like anything or shall we just get down to business?" Lava didn't answer, only watched him, motionless. "Very well, do you know who I am?" Lava shook her head slowly. "I am Lord Voldemort." Lava's reaction was almost instantaneous. Her eyes filled with tears of hatred and she got painfully to her feet.

"So what do you want?" She spat at him. Harry felt Voldemort's smile.

"I would like to make you an offer, my dear. You see, since last summer, when I ordered your family to be killed, I have often reconsidered my actions. I don't usually feel that way, and I have you to thank for it. I now feel that I was rather hasty in ordering your death in particular, my dear, and, when I look back, if your reflexes had been a fraction slower, I would never have known what a beautiful asset you would be to my little organization here. And I would like to thank you most profusely for demonstrating that remarkable strength of yours, not many witches your age could pull off a full killing curse, and you did so without even batting an eye. That was interesting, a born killer, and who is the first person she kills? Her own father! I'm glad that you saved me the trouble, my dear. But, I have been wondering something, and I was hoping that you might explain it to me before I tell you of my offer.

"Doesn't it ever occur to you that you may kill again? That some part of you, perhaps, likes the kill? After all, you've had one taste of murder already, and it felt good for a moment, didn't it? Before you realized the extent of what you had done, to your father, did you taste that feeling of power? The feeling of complete and total master over another soul? Do you ever think that, if it hadn't been your father, would you not try to suppress that little flair as hard as you do?" Lava had begun shaking violently somewhere during this speech, and had looked away from Voldemort, ashamed.

"So you have thought about it." Voldemort purred, and it was not a question. "Now, as for my offer, my dear. I would like it very much if you would join my little operation here. You would be held in high regard, and no one would ever blame you for your past actions, or even your future ones. You see, we all understand that little quirk of the human mind, but we have all learned to master those pesky little consciences that tell us that it's wrong to want to feel that power, that little rush. You don't have to answer me now, my dear, I am perfectly willing to let you think it over, but I'm afraid that you must stay here with me."

"As a prisoner?" Lava spat again, still looking at the floor.

"Of course not, my dear!" Voldemort laughed. "You're not a prisoner! I merely want to keep you safe from Dumbledore. You see, Dumbledore wants you to feel that conscience. He wants you to feel guilty about what you've done for the rest of your life. Why do you think he allowed Potter to have his way with you? He knew that what happened yesterday would eventually happen. Everyone knows that Potter hates anyone who has ever committed any type of crime, and he especially loathes those who have taken a human life, whether by accident or not. Dumbledore knew that, but let you go on being used by that boy so that you would eventually get your comeuppance. None of us here, would ever have let that happen." Lava looked at Voldemort now, her brow furrowed and her eyes cloudy. Voldemort stepped closer to her, and she tensed but did not step away.

"I can, of course, promise you, my dear, that if you were to join my cause, Harry Potter would never lay another finger on you." He lifted a finger and touched the bruise on her cheek with so light a touch, Harry suspected that Lava could barely feel it. She was looking into Voldemort's red eyes, and, to his utmost horror, Harry saw that she was seriously considering Voldemort's offer. His heart twisted violently and he could feel Voldemort's smile. Voldemort's hand dropped from Lava's face as her eyes dropped to the floor again.

"May I ask you a question?" She said, her voice soft.

"Anything, my dear." Voldemort purred.

"Why did you want to kill my family?" She asked, not looking up. Voldemort sighed.

"That's a difficult question to answer. There were many reasons, some of which I now have rethought, though it's far too late. But, the main one was that they were friends of Dumbledore's and were not likely to be swayed to my ways of thinking."

"But why did that mean that they had to die? We didn't care one single iota about what was going on in England. It wasn't necessary."

"Oh, but my dear, it was completely necessary. You did not know that your parents were planning to come here and help Dumbledore, they were planning to drag you away from your school, your friends, your star status as a Chaser on you Quidditch team, all because of Dumbledore's ridiculous opinions about how love is the most powerful thing in the world. But you and I both know that that's not true, now don't we? Love is cruel and deceptive, and it hurts everyone it touches sooner or later. Potter, who is famous for loving his friends, who was protected by his mother's love, made you fall in love with him, just so that he could get exactly what he wanted from you. You see, my dear, I know all about you. You've never really believed in love, have you? Love as been as unattainable as a star. It has never seemed real to you, and Potter dealt you the gravest of blows. He gave you a taste of what love could be if it were real, he gave you pretty, shiny thing and told you that it was a star, and all it turned out to be, was a simple rock. This is what Dumbledore offers, enchanted rocks."

"And what do you offer?" Lava's voice sounded forced.

"Power." Voldemort said. "Power is the greatest thing in the world, you've tasted it yourself, my dear. Imagine that little taste growing and growing. Killing your weak father was only the beginning, my dear, I believe that you are capable of so much more." Voldemort's voice was filled with charm, but Lava's stature had changed. Her shoulders were now so tense that they shook, and Harry felt a twinge of triumph, knowing that Voldemort had lost her. Lava's beautiful eyes rose again to Voldemort's, but this time, they were filled with hate and disgust.

"My father," She spat. "Was not weak." She pulled herself up and stood with her chin high and defiance rolling off her. Harry thought she looked like a queen. "I will _never_ join you. Dumbledore may not be right about love, but he is right about _me_. I am better than that. Yes, I will live with my father's death for the rest of my life, but that does not mean that I will ever kill another innocent person. You forget that Dumbledore also says that there are not just good people and evil people in the world, that there are shades of gray on both sides, and I may be a shade of gray, but that does not mean that I am automatically evil."

"And that is you final decision?" Voldemort's voice was low and dangerous, with none of his former charm. Lava's chin raised a fraction higher and her eyebrow raised almost imperceptibly. Voldemort nodded. "Very well, then, my dear." He turned away from her and walked away, but as he reached the circle of Death Eaters, he turned back to her. She still stood defiant and radiant and Harry felt a flush of pride. He felt Voldemort pause, and then smile slowly. "I'm afraid that you leave me with no choice." And then he raised his wand and said lovingly, "Crucio."

Lava was thrown to the floor and her screams of pain pierced the room. Harry cried out as well, but no one heard him save Voldemort, who enjoyed it. Harry screamed for him to stop, but he did not. Harry mentally curled himself into a ball, Lava's screams pounding in his brain. She was in pain and he was only steps away, but he could do nothing to help her, nothing at all. He tried to shut his eyes against the sight of Lava writhing on the cold stone floor, but he could not, for Voldemort did not even blink, relishing in it as much as Harry was tortured by it.

After a moment, as Lava's screams started to die from lack of oxygen, Voldemort finally lifted the curse. Lava lay curled into a ball, panting and wimpering.

"I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, my dear." Voldemort hissed. "Is your answer still a no? Remember that I can still do far worse to you." Lava panted for another moment, but then got to her knees slowly, still holding her stomach. She smiled.

"Well," She said, her voice a bit strained, but pleasant. "You should probably do it, then." Harry could feel Voldemort's temper sparking.

"Have it your way." He said, angry. His wand raised again, and he gave it a little flick. Lava's body tensed a moment, but then she laughed.

"Was that it?" She said. Harry felt Voldemort smile slowly. 'It's time to play, Harry. Watch closely now.'

"Incido!" And Lava's head snapped to the side again. she lifted a hand to her cheek and drew away blood. Looking back at Voldemort, she was no longer smiling, and Harry could see the gash across her bruise. It wasn't very deep, and probably wouldn't scar, but it was bleeding profusely, and looked quite painful. But Lava wiped it with the back of her hand and got to her feet painfully. With another light flick of his wand, though, Voldemort sent her flying into the far wall, where she crashed to the floor. Voldemort moved towards her again, the Death Eaters parting for him.

"Crucio." He said again, and Lava's screams once more filled the small room. When Voldemort lifted the spell, he knelt down near her quivering form. "I won't ask you again, my dear." He said, picking up a lock of her hair and twirling it in his fingers. "Won't you reconsider?" Lava murmured something that was too low too hear. "I'm sorry, what was that?" She drew a deep breath and said, her voice pained.

"Kiss my ass." Voldemort sighed.

"Pity." He then wrapped his fingers even tighter around the lock of her glorious hair, and, to Harry's horror, ripped it out of her head. Another scream wrenched through the room as he stood and stepped back, putting the lock inside his robes. Lava's hands clutched her head as Voldemort hissed, "Bracchium Invro." And then Harry watched as the arm closest to him began to smoke, listened as whimpers grew into screams, saw the skin bubbling and burning.

"As much as I love hearing your screams, my dear, they are _far_ too piercing for anyone to stand for any length of time. Let's fix that, shall we? Suffoco!" And Lava's screams ceased into gurgles as her hand clutched at her throat. Harry could see the pressure caving in her neck. Voldemort held it there for a moment, then let it go and cried, "Compendiarius!" And the shirt at Lava's stomach shredded and the perfect skin beneathe it began to bleed, and Harry could see deep gashes before Lava curled in on herself, gasping and crying out hoarsely, holding her uningured arm to her stomach. Laughing, Voldemort repeated the curse and gashes appeared on Lava's arm as well. She curled into an even smaller ball, before the cruciatus was again performed. Her cries were ringing through Harry's brain as Voldemort laughed hysterically.

'Pleasant dreams, Harry!' He cried and Harry was banished from the scene, waking sharply in his four poster, soaked in sweat and tears cascading down his cheeks.

-- -- -- -- --

When Harry's shaking had subsided slightly, he got out of his four poster and, not even bothering to put on his shoes, ran out of his room. It was evening now, and he supposed that everyone was at dinner since the common room was completely empty as he rushed through it and out the portrait hole. He headed for Dumbledore's office again, never slowing his racing pace. He stopped only when he reached the gargoyle, and panted the password. Then he dashed up the revolving stairs and threw open Dumbledore's office door, where he stopped dead in the doorway.

There, tall, hook-nosed and greasy-haired, stood one of the last people Harry wanted to see. Snape was standing next to Dumbledore's chair and had looked up at Harry from a very pointed converstation. Professor McGonagall was there as well, but Harry barely noticed her haggard form.

"You!" Harry snarled at Snape, who simply straightened and scowled at him from across the room.

"Yes, Mr. Potter?" He said, his voice low and scathing, just as if they were in Potions class. "As you hopefully can see, we were in the middle of a very important conversation, so if your little interuption could wait until..." But Harry had crossed the room to the older man and now grabbed the front of his robes, wishing fervently that he had brought his wand with him.

"You coward!" He snarled in the man's face. "You just stood there and watched! Watched as he did all those things to her, as he tortured her and made her bleed and cry. How _dare_ you speak to me as if nothing is wrong when it's taking every ounce of my ever-dwindling will not to try to kill you where you stand! How _could_ you just watch! Merlin knows why but she _likes_ you. _Admires_ you even, and you just stood there and watched like she was just some interesting experiment or something! Why didn't you _do_ something! _Why!_" Harry's legs gave out and his hand released Snape's robes as he slid heavily to the floor, his body wracked with sobs again, as images of Lava's torture flew through his mind. Snape stared down at him, speechless, but for once he did not even wear the slightest hint of a scowl on his face, in fact, his eyes were rather sad.

"Professor Snape couldn't have done anything, Harry." Dumbledore said, coming to Harry's side and helping him into an armchair. Knowing this, Harry nodded miserably, tears still burning his sore eyes.

"I'm sorry, Professor." He whispered, and realized that he meant it. Snape could not have done anything for Lava, and he, at least, had not smiled at what had been happening, Harry had noticed that through his haze. And Harry also knew, as he had yelled at Snape, that Lava was one of the very few students that he tolerated, maybe even liked.

Out of his peripheral vision, Harry saw Snape step towards him and reach out his hand. Then he paused and flexed his fingers for a moment, before patting Harry's shoulder awkwardly. He then stepped back hastily and smoothed his robes.

"I see that it is obvious that Voldemort has seen fit to show you what went on with Miss Kathmerneniven, Harry." Dumbledore had simply stated it as a fact and not a question, but Harry nodded miserably anyway.

"He was torturing her for not joining him and then he threw me out of his head after he c-cut her arm."

"That was all you saw?" Snape asked, and his voice had a tone that Harry took to mean that there had been more afterwards that he had not seen.

"And before when she was..." He stopped and swallowed thickly. "Considering his offer."

"But not after?" Harry shook his head and finally looked at the two men before him.

"Why? What happened after?"

"Nothing." Snape said, not looking at him.

But Dumbledore looked Harry straight in his eyes and said, his voice calm but with a slight edge to it, "He sent the others Death Eaters on their ways, and gave her to Bellatrix Lestrange."

If Harry had had anything in his stomach at all, he would have vomited right then and there, but as he did not, his body resorted to painful, dry heaves along with the wracking sobs. He clutched the arms of his chair so hard that his knuckles had turned white, and the veins beneath threatened to burst through the taught skin. If he had been able to speak at all, he would have been screaming at the top of his lungs, but his throat was so tight and raw that he could not make any sounds beyond the whimpers he was giving off. had he been able to stand, he woould have, but his body was shaking so much that he knew that none of his muscles would support him in the slightest.

"If it is any comfort whatsoever, Potter," Snape said, still not looking at him, but his voice almost kind. "He did tell her not to drive Lava insane and not to kill her. He still has a hope that, after a while, she will join him. And, of course, he wants to torture you in the future, as well." Harry nodded stiffly, and, after a long while, calmed down a bit.

"I suggest that you go back to your common room, Harry, and try to get some sleep you will be needing all you can get of it in the days to come, and there is nothing more that can be done tonight. Do you think that you can make it on your own?"

Harry nodded again, and scrubbed his face before getting carefully to his feet, surprised that his legs did hold him for now at least. He started to move for the door, but Dumbledore stopped him.

"We were able to recover a few things from your picnic sight, Harry, if you want them." Harry did not speak, but looked at Dumbledore with a question in his eyes. Dumbledore drew Lava's wand and their book, now warped from the rain, from his desk. Harry stepped forward and took them gingerly in his shaking hands, his fingers caressing the smooth wood and the rough pages. He nodded to Dumbledore and tried to smile, but was unsucsessful and simply turned again to leave the room. "Also, her schoolbag is by the door, you may take it as well, if you like." Harry saw it and scooped the strap over his shoulder in an all too familiar way, and his body beginning to convulse again, all but ran from the office and back to the still-empty common room.


	17. Hoplelessness, Hope, Misery

_**Chapter Seventeen: Hoplelessness, Hope, Misery**_

Over the next few weeks, Harry's days were filled with the monotony of un-listened-to classes, barely touched plates of food, and nights he tried in vain not to allow Voldemort to pull him into the world of Lava's never-ending torture. It seemed that the Dark Lord was now keeping the love of Harry's life alive only so that he could torment Harry every possible moment that he could. In fact, the morning after Harry's first dream, Ron and Hermione had dragged Harry to a breakfast that he had no desire to go to. Halfway through pretending to eat the meal, long after all the other student's owls had come and gone, a strange entirely black owl had soared through the window and crashed down onto Harry's plate momentarily before winging back out into the open sky as quickly as it had come.

It had left him an odd black piece of parchment, folded and sealed into an envelope. It did not have any words on it, but Harry assumed that it was for him, as it was sitting on top of his uneaten eggs. He reached out curiously and touched the parchment, and it fell open immediately, revealing, to everyone's horror, the long, beautiful lock of Lava's fiery hair, which Harry had seen cruelly ripped from her scalp the day before. He was sure that this was the same lock of hair because their were dried flecks of blood on the massacred roots. Hermione had barely had enough time to conjure a small metal bucket in front of Harry before he retched the entire contents of his semi-empty stomach into it.

Two days later, Harry received another of Voldemort's 'presents' in the middle of his potions lesson. This time it had been wrapped in brown paper and tied with black string, and whole thing had been oddly stained, and again, as soon as Harry had put a finger to the package, it fell open. This time revealing Lava's tie, so heavily stained with still-wet blood that the gold stripes were hardly discernable from the red ones. This time, it had been Professor Snape to conjure the bucket instead of Hermione, though it hadn't really been need as Harry's stomach far too empty for anything more than painful dry heaves.

And the dreams. The dreams were always there. It was as if Voldemort never slept, just waiting for Harry's mind to slip into unconsciousness, so that he could take over and show Harry just what _exactly_ he and Bellatrix were to doing to Lava. They made her bleed many times, knowing that he was watching and crying out with his love. Bellatrix even ripped out more of her blood-soaked hair, which was always sent to Harry one or two days after the viewing of the atrocity. They broke her bones, only to reset them hours later, letting the pain fester until it grew numb due to new and harsher pains. And always, always, there was the Crucio curse. Applied viciously, but kept on the writhing, screaming form for no more than counts of seven or eight at a time.

Harry was so conflicted about these dreams, the visions that Voldemort made him witness. He hated seeing Lava in so much pain, hated that he could do nothing to help her. But there was also a small portion of him that wanted to see her every night that kept him from going to Madame Pomphrey for something to either keep him awake, or to block his mind from dreams and visions entirely, or to Dumbledore, to ask for more lessons in Occlumency, so that he could block the intrusions himself. At first, he had hated that he felt that way, but as he had explored the feeling, he found that it was simply the desire to know that she was still alive, that she still had not given in to the Dark Lord's wishes, and even, in the smallest of ways, to be there with her and for her as much as he could.

He found that he felt that this was his torture, his little slice of the hell that she was going through, his way to stay connected to her, and to take what little of her pain that he might. And he found that he grew to love her more with each passing day than he ever felt was possible. For even though he watched her crumble from the proud queen he had so admired and idolized, to a figure he would never have pictured her, covered in dried blood and dirt and scars, hair an oily mass of tangled blood, he found that she was more beautiful to him than she had ever been before. For there was always that spark in her, whether she was throwing out sarcasm or even if it was just the defiant glint in her bloodshot eyes, she was always the same, she never wavered from her true self. She was always the woman he loved and respected.

The end of October came and went, and with it, so did the Halloween Feast, which Harry did not attend, the first trip to Hogsmeade, where he vowed not to go until Lava went with him, and the beginning of the Quidditch trials. Harry had given up his Captaincy in favor of Ron immediately after remembering his responsibility. He had even wanted to go so far as to quit the team entirely, but Ron had been avid that Harry would only be taking a respite until Lava was safe again, and then he expected the Seeker to reclaim his position from Ginny. Harry had merely agreed with a heavy heart, and dismissed the subject entirely.

Although there could be no doubt about how Harry Potter had sunken into a very deep depression without the lovely redhead at his side every day, speculations zoomed about the rumor-mill as to the reason why he was depressed, and as to the question of how Lava Kathmerneniven had wound up in the hands of the Dark Lord to begin with. Some of the rumors were so far off the charts that they could have been laughable, if anyone at all could find humor in the subject, but some of them were very close to the truth, which had not been disclosed. These had started when Draco Malfoy had 'let it slip' that Lava had had something to do with the death of her father, but that there had been no question of anything but self-defense. Harry assumed that the boy had then furthered the fulmination of the most disgusting, and largely accepted version of Lava's abduction.

It had grown from that Harry must have found out and been so disgusted that he left Lava on the lakeshore alone and without any protection, to that he had hit her when he found it out because he was so avidly against murder of any kind, to that he had gone into a fit of pure rage and given her to Voldemort freely. They had even begun to add that he had raped her as well, because everyone could clearly remember how he couldn't keep his hands off her. Now, of course, not everyone bought into the extremes of this version, but it was still enough to be angry with him for leaving her alone at night when it was clear that she had been in danger from Voldemort just as much as he usually was. They didn't shun him completely, but if he ever did decide to notice his surroundings, they made it very clear that they were just as unhappy with him as he was with himself.

And then, suddenly, December was upon him. Lava had been in Voldemort's clutches for two whole months now, tortured almost every day for nearly sixty days. Almost sixty days of screams and blood and pain, for both she and Harry, although Harry would never say that her tortures hurt him almost as much as they did her, for he could hear her screams when the tortures were happening, could see her tears and hear her almost-stifled whimpers when they were not. For many times, Voldemort was content to just let Harry watch her when she was cold and alone, and in tremendous, continuous pain.

Now it was December seventeenth, and the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had just finished their last classes of the day. Tomorrow would be Saturday, a day where most of the students would be returning to their homes for the Christmas holidays. Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys' had not yet decided whether they were going to Order Headquarters this year, or if they were going to stay at Hogwarts. Harry couldn't muster up too much interest in either location for Christmas, but if he tried very hard, he could almost find himself leaning more towards staying at the castle, just in case. But, then again, in case of what? No one knew where Voldemort was keeping Lava, not even Snape, for Voldemort had put the location under the Fidelius Charm.

And Harry knew that they only way Voldemort would release Lava, were if she was dead. But a part of Harry still held out hope. A part of him had to. And that little part was only kept alive by the fire still in Lava's eyes, but Harry knew that if that fire were to die, so would that part of him. If Lava began to have no desire to go on, then neither would most of Harry. He would go on, if only to try to see Lava avenged should she die, but afterwards, who knew what he would do?

And so, here he was, sitting on the couch in front of the fir in the Gryffindor common room, trying to warm the limbs that had been bone-numbingly cold ever since she had been taken, as he did many days and nights now. There he sat, praying to whoever felt like listening, when suddenly there was a fire in his head, emanating from his scar. A fire that burned so hotly, and with such a terrible rage, that Harry wouldn't have been surprised if his scar had split open. Immediately, through the haze of animosity, he tried to clear his head, but almost as soon as the rage was there, it was gone again, leaving him panting and clutching his head. As soon as he had his breath back, he immediately shot from his seat, to the shocked stares of Ron and Hermione, and ran from the common room, heading for Dumbledore's office.

Once he was at the Gargoyle, he shouted the password, which he had memorized long ago, and sprinted up the revolving stairs, unable to wait for them to take him up. He burst into Dumbledore's office to find the old Professor sitting behind his desk, Professor McGonagall standing at his side. The two teachers stopped their conversation in mid-sentence and stared at Harry. "What's happened?" He asked, his voice loud and desperate.

Dumbledore looked at him from over the tops of his half-moon glasses. "What do you mean Harry?" He asked. "What's happened where?"

Harry tried to catch his breath. "Voldemort." He panted. "He's- angry - about - something. Don't know- what."

Dumbledore's brow furrowed. "We haven't heard anything yet, Harry." He said, his voice gentle but with an edge of worry. "Sit down." He added, and Harry did, his hand clutching a stitch in his side. It wasn't long before his breath returned to normal, and he was about to say something when Dumbldore's office door opened again.

"She's escaped!" Snape almost bellowed as he crashed into Dumbledore's office. "Apparated out as if there was nothing to it, just waiting for an opportunity."

"How did she do that?" Dumbledore asked, standing, his eyes beginning to shine with pride.

"Here." Snape said, pointing his wand towards his temple. "I'll show you."

"You were sent to torture her as well?" Dumbledore asked, his tone of voice mild, while Harry rose as well, fighting his instinct to curse the man.

But Snape shook his head. "Merely to give her a healing potion." He said, and when the others merely gaped at him, added, "For her throat only. Lord Voldemort did not want her sore and worn-out vocal chords to hinder Potter's own tortures." Apparently satisfied, Dumbledore motioned for Snape to proceed.

The pensive was already visible, so the professor drew a long, wispy, blue-white thread from under his greasy hair and let it fall into the bowl. Harry, Dumbledore, and Professor Mcgonagall crowded around the bowl as well, and each touched a finger to it, all eager to watch.

They all fell into the same room that Harry had visited each night in his dreams. Except that Voldemort was not there, only Bellatrix and now Snape. Apparently, Snape had pulled the memory starting in the midst of his view of it, and not at the beginning.

Bellatrix had apparently just released Lava from another bout of the Cruciatus curse, for the girl was facedown on the floor, breathing heavily, her hair covering her face and tumbling onto the stones around her, nowhere near as vibrant as it used to be. "By this time," Snape said, watching Lava intensely. "Bellatrix had already been at the tortures for a few hours. So Miss Kathmerneniven, wherever she is now, has a leg broken in four places, as well as the opposite ankle, for it was crushed. Both of her arms are broken, as are most of her fingers and many of her ribs. Bellatrix hadn't decided to fix them yet, probably waiting to do it just before she left for the evening."

Now Bellatrix was speaking. "I grow tired of your abundant hair being everywhere all the time. Of course, it's great fun sending bits of it as presents to the people who want you rescued the most, but really, it's getting quite ridiculous. I can't even see your face etched with pain, and that just won't do at all." She smiled then, her crazed eyes glowing with evil intent. "Why don't we just go ahead and send the rest of it?" And with that, she sauntered over to the helpless girl, wrapped her fist in the once-shining red waves, and pulled Lava's head off the floor and back until she could barely swallow. She then pulled all of the hair together, and did the thing that Harry had been dreading for weeks now.

With one swift flick of her wand, Lava's makeshift ponytail came off in Bellatrix's fist, and Lava's face fell back to the ground with a sharp cracking sound. "Whoops." Bellatrix laughed. "I think you broke something." She fisted her hand in Lava's hair again and pulled. "And you had such _pretty_ cheekbones, too... Oh well, we can't have beauty _and_ brains, can we?" She then stood, pulling Lava up with her, ignoring the girl's pained whimpers, and Harry could see that Lava had turned her head at the last second, saving her nose, but completely obliterating that high, elegant cheekbone that Harry had so admired. He could feel the dry heaves coming upon him again, but he fought it down, knowing he needed to watch what happened next.

Bellatrix held up Lava's gorgeous hair and waved it at Snape. "Look Severus!" She cried, her face the epitome of crazed joy. "Something else to cause some panic with." But what Bellatrix hadn't noticed, that Harry had (for he had been watching Lava's pained face), was that, slowly but surely, Lava had been reaching up, with her broken arms, to the hand that clutched her hair. The hand that also clutched the _wand_. Then, in a sudden flash of motion, Lava both elbowed Bellatrix sharply in her side, eliciting sharp cries from both parties, and latched onto the wand at her head, wrenching it from the woman's grasp. Then, gripping it tightly, she twisted herself to the right and vanished, apparating cleanly away.

And here the vision ended, and the group was thrust back into Dumbledore's office. "So that's what that was." Dumbledore said, looking both pleased and alarmed at the same time.

"What was, Professor?" Harry asked him, feeling pleased himself.

"There was something that tried to penetrate the anti-disapparation jinx about a half hour ago. It did not get through, but it must have fallen quite close to it's boundaries." He turned to Professor Mcgonagall. "Get all of the professors together, as well as the prefects that are not Slytherins, and search the jinx boundaries. Search until you've found her, and then take her straight to Madame Pomphrey. And tell them that if they do find her, to send up gold sparks so as to let the others know. It is of great importance that we find her soon, as nightfall is coming upon us." He then turned to Harry as McGonogall and Snape hurried from the room. "Harry, you may join them, but if you are the one to find her, remember what happened the night she was taken, and be careful with her. She won't know that it wasn't really you as of yet." Harry swallowed thickly as images of what he had seen in Dumbledore's pensieve two months ago flashed through his mind, but then he nodded and left the office, beginning to run as soon as his feet left the staircase.

When Harry got to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, he made it just in time to hear McGonagall telling everyone to stay within shouting distance of each other, and to see Terry Boot of Ravenclaw disappear under the trees. Harry, too, entered the forest about fifteen feet away from Terry's entrance point, but couldn't see the boy at all, not even a hint of light from his wand. Shrugging, Harry muttered 'Lumos' and fixed his eyes on the ground in front and around him, searching earnestly for any sign of Lava. But he had no luck. Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen. After twenty minutes, Harry was becoming desperate. Surely the jinx wouldn't have thrown Lava too far in the forest... Harry could just imagine what a helpless, and more than likely unconscious witch would become prey to out here at night. Pictures from his own past experiences here flashed through his mind. Aragog and his children, werewolves, the extremely territorial centaurs, Graup. He shuddered, trying vainly to push the images from his mind and focus on looking for Lava.

But then, after another five minutes had passed, there was a commotion to Harry's right. He heard shouts and then a sizzle. He looked up and could just make out golden sparks through the tops of the trees. He turned and sprinted for the open grounds again, thanking every supreme being and every lucky star that he could think of. She had been found. When Harry cleared the last of the trees, he found that almost the entire search party had beat him there, though he wasn't entirely sure how that was possible. He counted heads quickly and found that the only ones missing were Snape and Terry Boot. Harry didn't know where Snape had decided to search, so instead of looking for the potions master, he fixed his eyes on the place he had seen Terry disappear.

Then, faintly, he saw a light moving towards the party, and his breath quickened. The light grew brighter and brighter, and slowly, a figure emerged, holding a limp form in his arms. The lights of the other's wands illuminated Lava's face, her uninjured cheek tucked securely in Terry's shoulder, her eyes closed in a pained sleep. Terry, though, did not stop in front of the group, but simply continued on past them, moving up to the castle. But Harry could see that the boy's face was flushed with anger when Terry sent him a fleeting glance as he passed.

The search party trudged slowly after the boy, all cowed at the sight of Lava's bloody and unconscious figure. The other prefects walked well away from Harry, and only McGonagall, Ron and Hermione stayed by his side, her iron-willed presence only a slight comfort. Seeing Lava in person now, even after all he had seen of her tortures in Voldemort's mind, was worse than horrible. The procession was very slow and somber, for even in the group's excitement in finding Lava alive, and their haste to get her to the Hospital Wing, every last one of them were cowed into silence at the sight of her mangled and blood-soaked form. For everyone could see the severed hair, the obliterated cheekbone, the clothes still wet with new blood, the lank fingers at odd angles, and the foot which, had it not been held there by layers of skin, obviously would not be there at all, seeing how it swung so nauseatingly free of bone and ligament.

When they all finally reached the Hospital Wing, they were met by Dumbledore and an extremely anxious Madame Pomphrey. The latter of the two gave a badly-stifled cry at the sight of the tortured escapee, and the former had obvious tears in his own bright blue eyes. Madame Pomphrey quickly directed Terry to the nearest empty bed, and the tall boy set Lava down so carefully, she might have been made of spun-sugar. Terry then turned to Dumbledore.

"I found this next to her." He said, holding out a broken wand. Harry recognized it as Bellatrix's, snapped jaggedly in half.

Dumbledore took it almost reverently from Terry's hand, looking from it to Lava with what looked like awe in his face. "Clever girl." He said quietly. "She knew to break the wand so that the owner could not sense where it was. She did so even though her hands were a far cry from easily capable of doing it." He then seemed to shake himself, and turned to the search party. "Thank you all for your help, but Miss Kathmerneniven is perfectly safe now, as you can see. You may all return to your beds." And, as the party started to trail out, he motioned that Harry, Ron, Hermione, Terry, and McGonagall were to stay. "Now, Poppy," He said, touching the crown of Lava's head carefully. "What does she need?"

For the first time in all of Harry's escapades into the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomphrey's hands shook and she had heavy tears on her cheeks as she pulled out her wand. She then positioned it horizontally over Lava's head and slowly moved it down the length of her body. After three passes, she set her wand down on the nightstand next to the bed, and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe her eyes before saying, "I can fix most of it, thank Merlin." She said. "But some of the scars she must live with for the rest of her life." She folded the handkerchief and stowed it away before picking up her wand again and using it as a pointer.

"As you can see, her right cheekbone is shattered, I shall have to remove the bone fragments before giving her a dose of Skellegrow, the same with the left side of her collarbone. Her right shoulder has been dislocated, and that will have to put back into its socket by hand. Her right arm is broken cleanly here, and fractured here and here. Her left arm is also broken, here, but it is a more jagged break. The joints have been ripped away in her left wrist, so she'll be needing to grow some more of those as well. In her left hand, her ring, middle and pinkie fingers are broken, and the thumb has been pulled from it's socket. In her right hand, all four fingers have been dislocated, and the thumb and forefinger are broken. Three ribs broken and two cracked on the left, and five ribs broken and one cracked on the right. This will also be tricky, for one of the ribs here has been broken cleanly in two and the loose fragment has punctured the lung. Her right femur has been broken cleanly in half, the ligaments in the knee are torn apart, the shin has been fractured here and here, and is also broken here and here. And the toes of the right foot have all been dislocated. The left kneecap had been shattered, along with the left ankle, and most of the toes. She will also, no doubt, need multiple blood replenishing potions if her clothes are anything to go by. As well as dietary supplement potions and one for dehydration."

"How long do you think it will take before she's back on her feet again?" Dumbeldore asked, for he seemed to be the only one of the group who could speak. McGonagall had her own handkerchief pressed to her mouth and nose, looking very green, Hermione was crying into Ron's chest, and the redhead looked to fighting to keep himself from slipping to the floor. Terry was breathing quite hard with his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles were turning white. And Harry was torn between having his knees give out, trying to find a bucket to retch into, or punching something very hard.

"She'll hopefully be out of it for a couple of days." Madame Pomphrey said, tucking her wand away again and wiping away another tear. "For if she isn't, she'll be in constant pain from having to regrow so many of her bones and tendons. And once they have grown back, she'll need crutches for a few weeks before her legs are back to their normal strength. Which means that, once I release her, she'll need help getting around to all of her classes."

"I'll do it." Terry said, his voice taught with anger. And Harry almost decided that the thing to punch was the boy's face. "I'm in all of her lessons, and it would be absolutely no trouble at all."

Dumbldore cleared his throat as he watched Harry's murderous expression. "We shall leave you to it, them, Poppy." He said. "If you need anything else for her, please do not hesitate to ask." And with that, he motioned for all of them to leave the room.

"If you don't mind, Professor, Madame Pomphrey, I'd like to stay and help." Terry said, his voice calmer though his hands were still tightly fisted. Madame Pomphrey, completely at odds with her usual temperament, muttered an acquiescence as she hurried off to gather the necessary potions.

Dumbledore made to say something when Harry interrupted. "If anyone's staying with Lava, it's going to be me." He said, facing Terry angrily.

Terry scowled down at him. The boy was not as tall as Ron, but was still much taller than Harry. He had deep blue eyes and blonde hair parted to one side in a nerdy fashion, falling across his broad forehead. "You're not getting anywhere near that girl, Potter." He almost spat. "Haven't you done enough to her already? Or are you blind?"

Harry stepped back, feeling like he had just been sucker-punched in the gut. He looked from Terry's furious face to Lava's, which was still pinched in a terrible pain that not even unconsciousness could save her from. "I didn't-" He started, but couldn't say any more.

But Terry took his words and ran with them. "That's right Potter." He said. "You didn't do anything. You left her there, alone, at night, knowing that she was in danger on just this very thing happening, but did you care? No. You just left, and look what happened." He gestured towards Lava. "This is all your fault, Potter." He said, his words as good as knives. "And I'm going to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again, and that includes keeping you as far away from her as I possibly can."

Harry swallowed the bile that seemed to be stuck in his throat, and fought to find something - anything - to say, but couldn't. Professor McGonagall took his arm and turned his around, leading him to the door. "Come, Potter." She said, her voice shaking. "We could all do with a good night's rest. Everything will be much better tomorrow." And with that, she led him from the room, Ron and Hermione trailing behind. As they passed through the door, Harry took one look back over his shoulder to see Terry kneeling next to Lava's bed, stroking her right wrist with a gentleness that was a far cry from the ferociousness of his words to Harry mere seconds before.


End file.
